Introduction

Leadership is an essential and even dominant element in any company's business success. Data from benchmarking studies and subsequent analysis through statistical correlations indicate "leadership" to be the primary influence on the success of a company in applying best practice.1 But what is leadership? How do we become leaders? Are we born with leadership qualities? Can we learn it by attending "leadership school," or by using leadership mentors, or should we read the latest books on leadership? As we all know, leadership is simultaneously simple and complex, and it's likely to be context dependent what works in one situation may not work in another. It's somewhat like the description of pornography that Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once offered: "It's hard to describe, but I know it when I see it." Below are several leadership models offered with a view to help improve your business performance through better leadership, and to identify what these models have in common.

Leaders vs. Managers

Warren Bennis suggests that the following characteristics of leaders and managers2:

Using this model, could we do without either leaders or managers? Most people would agree that we need a good mix of both. Do managers only manage, or leaders only lead? Most...