Yes, but how do you gain the respect of people who follow you? It's by doing something that piques their interest and inspires them. You don't wake up one day and have people searching you out to hear what you have to say because you are a "leader." It's because you have done something that has inspired them, and I think that's more what this is about.

You'd think that, but actually, that's exactly what film directors do, and I think we can all agree that they are de-facto "leaders".

Film directors become directors because they go around and tell people "I'm a director putting a movie together, do you want to work with me/invest in me/help me?" not because they work hard at unrelated task X and somehow become promoted to the rank of directors.

Leadership at its best...

Film directors become directors because they go around and tell people 'I'm a director putting a movie together, do you want to work with me/invest in me/help me?'

Isn't that usually the job of the executive producer?

I would say Jobs, Zuckerberg and Page fit that quote's profile nearly de facto.

Edit: However, I agree with your second statement. Though there's a wide gap between "leader" and whatever you would call the individuals I mentioned (yes, I'm trying to avoid terms such as "visionary").

The reason in my mind leadership is so valued is that there are problems worth solving that are too big for any one person to solve- anything from building companies to conquering vast swathes of land (which was considered a good thing a long time ago) - so being able to lead people in a cohesive fashion to solve these problems is a de facto requirement of leadership!

Having said that certain cases of "Thought leadership" which is one kind of leadership probably agrees with her blog.For example all leading scientists who make fundamental contributions to our understanding don't really need people following them but they do set the direction of future research so people do indirectly follow their leadsership

It does not mean that you aren't leading people, if you aren't trying to lead people. There are many great leaders who never intended to lead anything. And aren't pioneers leaders? They were the first and the others followed. If people are following that promotes the unbeknownst pilgrim to leader.

I agree that if you aren't leading people that you aren't a leader, but I don't think that is what the author implied. There are many many great leaders who are never seen as or talked about as "leaders."