There are numerous definitions of leadership and equally many different ways of categorising leadership. Yet despite this, there are very few leaders who really inspire or who can generate the kind of vision and values that are essential for organisational success. Sadly, there are many chief executives and senior managers in business today who are not leaders but good managers and understanding the difference between the two is crucial. Being a manager is a position in the organisation and it comes with power and responsibility, but it does not mean that the position necessarily inspires people to follow . Unless the needs of people within the organisation are taken into account, leadership will be ineffective. People need to give their permission for leaders to lead and have a desire for to follow them.

Leaders need to generate followership . So how can they do that? What are the key elements that form the core of leadership? In their book the Essence of Leadership , Professors Andrew and Nada Kakabadse argue that the capability to lead must be coupled with the practical skills that leaders need to have to manage their day-today affairs . They have distilled the views of today s great thinkers on leadership and developed a categorisation of leadership, the essence of which is noted here:

• Leadership can be considered to be a special type of power which can command and focus resources to achieve a particular vision, change or goal. Leaders can transform a business...