Who is a Leader?

There are so many books and web sites out there already about leadership, why start a blog? That has been the question I have been asking myself for a long time. I guess that it just came down to this being the right time in my career and my life.

I have always been passionate about training others. Even before I formally got into the field. It just seemed like the right thing to do, it made them happy, and I could not help be notice how much easier it made my life. I am a firm believer that my ability to teach others is a gift.

When this lead me to the training field I found myself focused in the area of management training. The line was often blurred between management training and leadership training. For me, the difference is: managers focus on maintaining things as they are (making sales plans, hitting budget goals, payroll forecasts, operations tasks, etc...); and leaders take their people and the company forward (new businesses, unexpected directions, able to see new opportunities, etc...).

So that brings me to our first question: Who is a Leader? Must you have a title that give you authority over others? Are all managers leaders? Can you be a leader and not work in the business world? (Yes, I know that is more than one question.-The rest are just to make us think.)

I would love to hear from others. Leave me a comment if you like. I promise to read them all.

Ken