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Leadership is intellectually simple, but behaviourally complex. Successful people are often intuitive and what they do from moment to moment really cannot be written down. In a rapidly changing environment they constantly diagnose, respond to what is happening and make judgements with choices and trade-off.

But this intuitive or instinctive leadership is really based on accumulated wisdom that has been shaped by experience, knowledge and a set of core values.

A raft of evidence now exists to prove that management and leadership development works. But are organisations taking it seriously? How much preparation are they giving their future leaders?

Essential Reading

The new language of leadership

A profound shift is taking place from predictive to non-predictive demand – from push to pull economics. And if organisations are to adapt to this, their leaders need to radically reassess their behaviour.

The difference between management & leadership

It sounds great. “You lead people, and you manage things.” It’s salient. Even philosophical. But it’s wrong.

Four steps to leadership heaven

Good leadership is never simple, but according to the experts, managers who want to be better leaders need to develop four fundamental abilities.

Seven principles of leadership

Effective leadership boils down to seven key principles, according to a new guide for employers. But organisations will only get it right if the message on how to lead comes from the top.

Eight little secrets of being a good boss

So you have just landed your first management job. Congratulations. But before you get too excited, remember that newly-minted managers are much closer to being reviled than revered - and how to be a good boss is one of the most challenging aspects of any management position.

Leadership vs Management

Many people think of leadership and management as interchangeable. But as this 20-year veteran of the executive recruitment industry and now CEO of an executive search firm argues, there is a vast divide between them.

Wanted: more bad (as in good) leaders

Sometimes, bad behaviour is inspirational. That's why great leaders need to be unreasonable. That's what leaders do. It's why the cool kids were the cool kids. It's what progress depends on.

Obsession with leadership undermining organisations

Controversial management Professor Henry Mintzberg has launched a broadside at his own colleagues in management education with a robust denunciation of the current obsession that business schools seem to have with teaching "leadership".

Empowering leadership not always the answer

Empowering leaders who give their employees room to think and behave independently are often perceived as more effective than the traditional directive leader. But according to U.S. researchers, this isn't necessarily so.

Jim Collins and Level 5 Leadership

Jim Collins is best known for his influential books Built To Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies and recent bestseller Good To Great. In his latest book, he examines how a good company becomes an exceptional company.

Leadership styles

What's most important for business leaders: traditional leadership skills or emotional intelligence? The answer, acording to new research, may be both.

Latest on Leadership

The three legs of leadership

Leadership effectiveness depends on three things. Your knowledge of the job, your place in the working environment and your ability to relate to others. Remove any of these three legs and – like a stool – you're heading for a fall.

A new philosophy for leadership

The current paradigm of leadership is broken. What we need in its place, says Professor Ken Starkey, is a model of leadership grounded in humility and balancing a concern for self with a concern for others.

Wisdom vs intelligence

Many business leaders are intelligent. But they're not wise, or even aware that they lack wisdom. And that's something that no amount of left-brain thinking, "operations-focused" education or experiential learning is going to change.

Women in leadership: beware the barriers

The idea of a glass ceiling is real, but it isn't glass and it's not really a ceiling. A more accurate picture might be a tangled web of trip hazards and barriers, notably around gender-based stereotypes.

Branding and leadership

Who we as leaders are - and how we're perceived by just about everyone - is our personal brand. And understanding our roles in the bigger picture of brand personification is an important factor in our success or otherwise as leaders.

What makes a great leader?

Whether you're already in a leadership role, want to aspire to leadership, or just want to be able to recognize a good leader when you see one, you need to remember that leadership involves its own skill set. So here's what I think are the main attributes of a great leader.

Define yourself to create success

Our identity is not fixed. It can be altered – significantly. And as Marshall Goldsmith explains, truly successful leaders have become the human beings that they choose to be - without being slaves to the past or to other people.

Falling short: a third of us give the boss a big thumbs down

A new report has found that a third of employees worldwide think their manager is ineffective and four out of 10 have left a job primarily because of poor leadership.

Marshall Goldsmith on leading remote teams

Wayne talks to Marshall Goldsmith about what his work with some of the world's most influential business leaders has taught him about the unique challenges of leading in a virtual workplace.

Leadership, management and the Eurozone crisis

One side-effect of the Eurozone crisis seems to be that the age old question – what is the difference between leadership and management – has been thrown into sharp relief. Yes, there is a difference. Just ask the Greeks or Italians.

Leadership and the nature of confidence

Economic cycles are a fact of life and business leaders are well used to dealing with their ups and downs. But this recession is different. It isn't just confidence in the economy that is eroding fast. Business leaders have lost their self-confidence, too - with damaging results.

Are you a dreadful leader?

The chances are you have witnessed the damage a dreadful leader can wreak on an organization. While bad leaders can take many forms, there are five primary types from which all are derived. So can you recognize a dreadful leader in your midst?

Leadership and dominance

In Western societies, strong leadership is often linked with the idea of the "alpha male", with generosity seen as a sign of weakness. So why do nice people get overlooked as leaders in favor of the dominant and power-seeking?

Leadership: we're in it together

Outstanding leaders lead by example. They put forth a sense that they and their staffs share the same goals and aspirations and that together, they are going to go about achieving these ambitions as one.

Can you really be a "Global" leader?

Whatever leadership and management books might try to tell us, leadership simply isn't is a universal skill set that works that same anywhere. All of us carry implicit cultural assumptions about what makes a good leader – which is why we need to ditch all those "one-size-fits-all" leadership mantras.

Poor leadership undermines US organizations

The quality of leadership in American organizations is poor and it isn't getting any better. What's more, leaders are stifling creativity and innovation because they are risk averse and focussed on their own survival.

Should leadership development be more transparent?

Programmes to identify and develop future leaders might seem to be sound talent management. But as a new survey highlights, there's also a downside.

The identikit CEO

So much for boardroom diversity. As a new report highlights, in the UK at least, the CEOs of large public companies are now more likely than ever to have a background in accountancy.

Dealing with a dominant CEO

A dominant CEO isn't just going to polarise the opinions of those who have to work with him. According to a new study, they can also deliver performance that is either much worse than other companies, or much better.

Creativity can be a block to the top

At a time when organisations are crying out for creative leadership more than ever before, new research from Cornell University has found that being creative can actually block your chances of reaching the top.

Leadership for a better world

At a time when new ideas are the only hope for our economic salvation, the real crisis we face is the inability of tired old institutions to produce the innovation and creativity that we are so desperately need. Instead, they are full of great people achieving mediocre results.

The leader as activist

In our world of change and complexity, there are no final authorities. Given the greater "wisdom of crowds", no one person can direct a complex business. An individual can only prod it to think differently. That's why the modern business leader needs to be an activist.

Leadership in troubled times

Most management teams can identify what is needed to help their company evolve. But most are much less accomplished at the sort of active, directive leadership that is required to galvanize teams and make change happen.

Where are the green business leaders?

All the good management in the world isn't going to deliver green business. To do that, we need to take 'green' out of the environmental manager's office and embed it into the DNA of the organisation. And that takes real leadership.

Are women better leaders than men?

With the modern work environment emphasizing feminine relationship-building skills to the exclusion of masculine competitive instincts, the idea that women make better leaders than men is gaining ground. But perhaps the reality lies somewhere in the middle.

Who's to blame?

Is it always right to pin the blame for a corporate failure on the CEO or are they sometime the scapegoats they make themselves out to be?

Why servant leadership is a bad idea

The concept of servant leadership has been around since the 1970s. But does it really hold water - or is servant leadership a bandwagon that needs to be derailed?

Self-delusion rife among managers

Do you think your boss is a good manager of people? More importantly, does your boss think he or she is a good manager of people? The gulf between the two answers turns out to be considerable.

Soft skills boost the bottom line

Far from improving financial performance, hard-driving, "results-at-all-costs" executives actually damage the bottom line because they lack strategic insight or the ability to work with and inspire others.

Developing future leaders

Like sex, leadership sells. It's what executives want to buy and the leadership development industry wants to sell. But most leadership development is out of kilter with a world dominated by rapidly-shifting ideas. All they are really doing is turning leaders into managers.

More on Leadership . . .

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