Insight from John Kotter about the difference between leadership and management.
The mistakes people make on the issue are threefold:
Mistake #1: People use the terms "management" and "leadership" interchangeably. This shows that they don't see the crucial difference between the two and the vital functions that each role plays.
Mistake #2: People use the term "leadership" to refer to the people at the very top of hierarchies. They then call the people in the layers below them in the organization "management." And then all the rest are workers, specialists, and individual contributors. This is also a mistake and very misleading.
Mistake #3: People often think of "leadership" in terms of personality characteristics, usually as something they call charisma. Since few people have great charisma, this leads logically to the conclusion that few people can provide leadership, which gets us into increasing trouble.
Via Kenneth Mikkelsen
In this video John Kotter, one of the top authors & researchers in the field of change scholarship, talks about the difference between change management and change leadership. Video: http://vimeo.com/20000373
Really clear, short article from John Kotter. The 3 mistakes highlighted have caused enormous amount of damage, particularly the 3rd mistake, thinking of leadership in terms of personality characteristics.