Give leadership

Dr. Richard Dobbins is a Management Consultant. He qualified as a Certified Accountant in 1968 after several years experience in professional offices, industry and public service. He studied for his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Management and Administration at the University of Bradford, where he was appointed Lecturer in Finance in 1973 and Senior Lecturer in Financial Management in 1979. He is an active consultant, editor of Managerial Finance and Management Research News and has lectured on management programmes in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Far East, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and North America.

Barrie O. Pettman is a Management Consultant, Registrar and Professor of Human Resource Management at the International Management Centres, Director of the International Institute of Social Economics, Chairman of MCB University Press, and a Visiting Professor at the Canadian School of Management. He lectured at the University of Hull and the University of Rhodesia 1970-1982. He is editor of the International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Equal Opportunities International, the International Journal of New Ideas and co-editor of Managerial Law. He was awarded a Distinguished Fellowship of the International Society for Intercommunication of New Ideas in 1991.

Adopt the characteristics of leaders, do what leaders do, and you become a leader.

Definitions of Leadership

Leadership is the ability to motivate people to strive to achieve common goals. Leadership is the ability to draw extraordinary performance from ordinary people. Leadership is about making things happen, getting results. Transactional leaders are those men and women of action who have the ability to motivate others to get things done.1 Transformational leaders are those men and women of vision who inspire others to high levels of achievement.2 In short, leaders make things happen and encourage and motivate others to make things happen.3 Leadership is about getting results. A manager's job is to get results. Leadership is one important managerial skill which can be learned.4

The Basic Skills of Leadership

Three fundamental attributes of leadership are:

(1) leaders set goals,

(2) leaders have high expectations of themselves and others,

(3) leaders are good listeners.5

Most people do not know what they want. Most people need leadership. If you set goals, then you become a leader. Leaders have a vision, a sense of mission which inspires...