Hack:
Leadership is mindmaking.

A good set of ideas

In the age of neuroscience, in this day and age where we are beginning to understand how ideas impact neuronal growth and decay (at the bouton synapse connection point - see Cajal 1906 Nobel Prize), the effective leader must be affective.  Modern leaders pull and do not push.

What does this mean?  The good leader attracts me via their integrity and intelligence.  They help me serve my following.  This is shown in their words and demonstrated in the deeds they suggest, which work. 

The good leader today knows and can consistently show the better way.  How do I get more for less?   This is a mental activity.  It starts with a set of linked ideas, which clearly point the right way forward.  Good leadership is as simple as that.  Management is now Mindagement.  We make up the mind with more affective ideas.

Think of it this way: if you have setup a taxonomy if ideas that know how and when to serve, by position, then that idea-set will properly control worker behaviors.  This good set-of-ideas is mentally and behaviorally affective, impacting the real world.  Good ideas work.

Set Thinking is ...

There are a few presidents and scientific references for this way of thinking about managing and leading.  Theoretically, I like Axiomatic Set Theory by Charles Sanders Peirce.  Also, you can look at the Axiom of Choice (a math logic) by Zermelo.  They both use reference frame defined, Set Thinking.

My preference would be to shorten the term and simply called it Set Thinking.  If you want to see an example of this simple leadership method, follow this URL >> www.SetThinking.com/E90.pdf.

In short, Set Thinking is foreknowledge, explicitly setup for a particular situation and non-confrontationally shared by a mature leader.  It is a set of better ideas, linked to lead people into a better ideological place. The intelligence resides in words and other symbols.  They carry insight that is transacted via common dialogue.

The idea of setting-up-ideas is the universal and recursive method, of good leadership (past, present, future).  The content of those good ideas will switch to the current context of the problem and/or opportunity.

There is only one type of bouton.  Neuroscience is showing that they behave in a consistent manner.  This means that at the most fundamental level, there is only one good thinking method.  I call this Set Thinking.
Sometimes the simple idea is best.  Comments and questions most appreciated.

Gary Deines