Leadership - isn't it?

Labour's leaders - new and old - have been all over the media the last few weeks.

Tony Blair's autobography paints a less than positive image of Gordon Brown's style of leadership:

"Polictical calculations yes. Political feelings no. Analytical intelligence, absolutely, emotional intelligence zero". Ouch.

If Mr Brown's style is so obvioulsy lacking in the humanistic element it does beg the question how he managed to lead at all - or was it a case of management rather than leadership?

We've all heard rumours of an autocratic style, with MP's allegedly afraid to air views or challenge decisions - fairly symptomatic of a lack of trust and a directive style of management

And that's the issue. So often it is too easy to focus on the hear and now - results, deadlines, costs for eaxample - and forget about the bigger picture. What we're setting out to achieve, how best to get there and how to motivate team members to achieve.

Steven Covey makes a wonderful quote: leadership is about which wall to place the ladder against, management is about getting people to climb the ladder efficiently.

Each leader will do well to remember this when balancing the competing elements that draw on their time. Neglecting one can lead to trouble further down the line - no doubt as Mr Blair is pointing out - and hopefully Mr Milliband has taken note. Time will tell...

In the meantime, can you spot the activities that are associated with leadership and those that are associated with management?

Recruiting
Monitoring
Sharing a vision
Giving praise
Running meetings
Setting targets
Resoving conflict
Team briefings
Giving feedback
Applying poliy
Giving resonsibility
Managing budgets
Reviewing performance
Developing strategy