Let’s examine interpersonal skills. You will need the help of others in order to fulfill your dreams.

Here is a question for you:

Who can you collaborate with to make things easier?

Leadership and management skills are how to conduct the orchestra of your life.

• Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.

• The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.

• The manager operates within the status quo; the leader challenges it.

• The manager has his eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the horizon.

These sayings describe the symbiotic relationship between management and leadership. A healthy organization needs both. Leadership is Vision. Management is Implementation. They are the yin and yang of business and the pursuit of sterling achievement.

Influence and Inspiration

Management consists of controlling a group or a set of entities to accomplish a goal.

Leadership refers to an individual’s ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward organizational success. Influence and inspiration separate leaders from managers, not power and control.

- Harvard Business Review

“Vision without execution is just hallucination.” — Thomas Edison

In many ways running a business engages a set of activities you perform regularly in your private life. How these activities have impacted you and how you react and interact with them, will provide you with a deep understanding about what is effective and important to you, and what is not. By taking stock of your personality and predispositions, you can develop a business persona and set of operating habits that are in line with your innate strengths, interests and preferences.

Model your management vision on what you already know about yourself and not on some abstract idea of a business executive. As you go through this self-assessment there may be traits and behavior patterns you may want to change in order to be more effective. Look at developing management skills and knowledge as ways to impress your personal stamp on the world in an effective and beneficial way, not as an oblique strategy to impress others with your success and wealth. Be yourself, only more so.

Quick Assignment

• Pick 3 words that describe your deepest convictions

• This is the core from where you want to operate

The Path

Being who you are

• Authenticity

• Genuineness

Knowing who you are

• Introspection

• Self Awareness

Self mastery

• Discipline

• Habit

Cultivating yourself

• Growth

• Development

• Learning

The most difficult person you will ever have to manage and lead is yourself.

Learn both management and leadership skills. Become a student of the possible.

For a detailed exploration of management and leadership check out my book Managing and Leading: Organizations and People.

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