Possibly nothing in the profession of management gives a young leader greater concern as they anticipate their future work than that of successfully leading a group of people. To do this requires, judgment, skill, training, together with as complete a knowledge of the art of management as they are able to acquire. Management practices are far more effective when the leader is sure of the ground on which they stand. There is a great difference between discovering a sound managerial practice through accident or following it because others have been known to follow it successfully.
After carefully considering every possible discussion and suggestion offered, I can think of none that I would not have welcomed as a young manager had such been offered to me. Most of the knowledge and leadership wisdom in this blog was gained at the expense of my employees, and, at the same time, at a great cost to me. It is my goal to save other managers from the mistakes which I made; and as I teach, I shall continue to learn. I will attempt to deal only with the application of sound managerial practices, not theory, which, I hope, is apparent to all.
The job of a manager is to plan, organize, and control. The job of a leader is to motivate, inspire, and drive change. The biggest difference between management and leadership is that we manage things and we lead people. Leadership is a part of management, not something different. Leading is one of the four basic functions of management. Leadership and management go hand in hand. You manage the business (organization), you lead the people.
The question of leadership is one of the most important and interesting, but one of the most difficult and complicated, topics with which the mind of man has been occupied for thousands of years. There are few other questions on which such different and contradictory views have been expressed.
Leadership is all about learning to control yourself, not others. Self-control is the ability to think before you act. Poor leaders react angrily to bad news, they give the first response that comes to mind, and they are full of emotional outbursts.
If there is to be a high sense of intellectual and social responsibility; if innovation, creativity, honest enterprise, and the advancement of global markets are to be encouraged and fostered, there must be a renewed commitment to the sound and proven practices of leadership. No one should enter upon this work without an appreciation of its great opportunity, without a sense of the responsibility involved as a leader.
Life is glorious. Its roads are paved with diamonds of leadership opportunity. Its banks filled with beautiful flowers. It's overarched with the glory and beauty of the sun, the moon, and the stars. When you wake up in the morning, reach up and touch the beauty of life!
Brad Hanson is an experienced management consultant, master sales and leadership trainer, and a keynote speaker with 50 years of sales and leadership experience.
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