INTRODUCTION

Leadership skills have now been universally recognised as a key ingredient – some would say the key ingredient – in management. A good manager is now by definition a leader. Equally, a good leader will also be a manager.

But how do you become such a leader? Is it possible to develop your own abilities as a leader? Let me answer that last question with a resounding YES. As for the first question, this blog is my answer. It is a simple practical guide for anyone who is about to take up a team leadership role in any organisation. But I hope that it will be equally useful for those alreadyin such roles who wish to improve their basic leadership skills. If leadership matters to you, this book will give you a complete framework for becoming an effective leader.

One word of caution: nobody can teach you leadership. It is something you have to learn. You learn principally from experience. But experience or practice has to be illuminated by principles or ideas. It is when the sparks jump between the two that learning happens. So you will have to think hard, relating what I say to your experience as you read and reflecting on it. As with everything else in life, the more you put into this joint exploration of practical leadership, the more you will get out of it.

Let me add a bold claim for this blog site. People often debate the differences and similarities of leadership and management. But the majority of practical people are interested primarily in what they have to do, and not whether it should be labelled ‘leadership’ or ‘management’ or both. As a Chinese proverb says, ‘What does it matter if a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice?’ This is the book for such leaders. It is the first really successful synthesis of the concepts of leadership and management. At last there is a single integrated vision, a focus that encompasses both perspectives.