In some interesting conversations recently, leadership and management have been hot topics.  It is fascinating that leadership and management are seen as the same thing in many peoples’ mind.  They are totally different.  There has been so much written on the difference, yet it still amazes me that management persists as the way forward.  For sure, we need management skills and good managers to implement and achieve business outcomes.

Equally, it seems that the ability of managers to use leadership skills is limited.  We need to be innovative & creative, demonstrate high levels of interpersonal flexibility, involve people and give them opportunity to excel by giving them support.  When we make mistakes, accept them and learn from them.  Leaders allow this through continuous learning both for themselves and encouraging others to do the same.

In a recent example of management gone mad - I heard that the sales of a particular company had not been so good.  They had implemented a ‘new’ selling skills process and involved the managers to implement it.  Several indicators have since shown that sales are low and customers not happy.  The solution put forward……… more management time to get the sales people doing more of what they have done so far!  Surely, that will give them more of what they got before - low sales!  What really is needed is a look at leadership (as well as the selling process) and how to learn from the mistakes that have been made.  Innovate some new ways of doing the task and improve the performance and outcomes.