I had several coaching conversations last week which led me to ponder the meaning of the words “leadership” and “management”, and the difference between the two.

According to Harvard Business Review, “management consists of controlling a group or a set of entities to accomplish a goal. Leadership refers to an individual’s ability to influence, motivate and enable others to contribute towards organisational success.”

By this definition many of the people I work with are managers rather than leaders. They are often new managers, promoted because of their technical rather than their people skills.

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