take me to your leader

In fact, power for the most part is a badly misunderstood term and a badly misused capability. I'm talking about a different kind of power than we usually refer to. It's not ladder power, as in who's best at climbing over the adjacent bods. It's not who's-got-the-biggest-office-by-six-square-inches power or who's-got-the-fanciest-title power.

It's influence power.

It's being known for making the most significant contribution in your particular area. It's reputational power. If you were a scholar, you'd measure it by the number of times your publications get cited by other people. If you were a consultant, you'd measure it by the number of CEOs who've got your business card in their Rolodexes. (And better yet, the number who know your beeper number by heart.) (Tom Peters in Fast Company)

This is from a great piece written in 1997 about creating a brand for yourself, i.e. BrandYou. These few paragraphs are exactly what I've thought about leadership for a while now. It doesn't take a title to make a leader, it takes a following.
A lot of personal branding happens in AIESEC whether or not people realize it. This gives a good language to talk about it in.