There is a widely held view that a business manager is naturally a leader. Nothing can be further from the truth. My British Army experience demonstrated that strong leadership with a detailed grasp of administration or management was central to being an effective military leader – a leader having the ability to manage resources to achieve the intended aim and above all, to motivate and lead people. On moving across to the commercial world, I discovered that in a tough economic environment strong leadership, coupled with robust management, is vital to giving business the edge, beating the competition and achieving growth.

A simple definition of leadership is the ability to inspire trust and confidence in those you lead, such that they follow you, knowing that you will do the right thing. Or put it another way, strong leadership persuades those led to do willingly those things which they otherwise would not want to do!  But it is more complex than that – inevitably. Without committed, motivated and enthusiastic people, organisations at best will stagnate and make little progress, and at worst will become moribund and fail. In the complex  commercial world, businesses should be forward-looking and innovative in order to maintain momentum. They need well-led people to do that.

Some would say that people can be motivated simply by financial incentives to meet targets and deliver what is required. I disagree. Financial inducements have a part to play but there is a real risk that such incentives on their own will simply create a culture of self-centred individualism, with little thought for the overall objectives of the business. There is no substitute for people knowing their place in the organisation and working together to achieve objectives with a trusted leader at the head.

For any operation or venture to be successful, the resources to support the achievement of the objective require to be marshalled and used well. In military terms, a successful campaign needs a number of resources: intelligence on the enemy; combat-capable Forces; well-planned logistics etc. Warfare is a complex business – get it wrong and people will die needlessly.  But in the commercial world, life equally complex, but hopefully no-one will die if you get it wrong! Resources still need marshalling: intelligence on the competition; skilled people; an effective budget. Whilst a manager can coordinate these resources, it is the leader who provides the judgement on how to use them where, when and in what manner. Judgement comes with practice and making mistakes from which you learn – there is no substitute for this – it cannot be taught on a management course. Practice, trial and error is how you develop and grow as a leader who will be respected and followed.

In summary, management is not leadership but to be effective, a leader must have a strong grasp of management.