Adcomm's first two issues May 2012 Launch issue | Page 46

Business management

Adcom media

Arnold Strauss

A

rnold is an independent business consultant that
has been in business, in the corporate environment
and privately for the last 30 years. Apart from being a
qualified accountant, Arnold also holds several business
degrees.

This month – the leadership myth
Leadership is still a loosely used term and widely

misunderstood whereas research has shown that leadership is
a distinctly different discipline from management. But before
the myths are addressed, I must first briefly touch on one of
my pet hates. There are certain titles that are not for you as
individual that you may call yourself. If you had completed
medical school, you are allowed to call yourself “Doctor”. If
you are appointed as Technical Manager at a company, you
are allowed to call yourself just that. The same goes for a
Director being appointed to a board and so the list goes on.

However there are certain titles that are reserved for
the people around you to decide whether you qualify.
For example: Innovator, Inventor, Entrepreneur and
the subject of this article – Leader. These are titles
that depend on the perception of those that believe
in your philosophies and culture. The people that you
have successfully influenced, that have bought into your
direction and are prepared to perform according to your
directives regardless of other external influences.
Here are some of the myths that still exist around the
function of Leadership:

Arrie Straus Businessman and Entrepreneur

• The Management Myth. In the opening paragraph it
was pointed out that it is still often believed that
Management and Leadership are one and the same.
Research, including that of the author, has shown that
these are two distinctly different disciplines. It might
well be that it is the same person but Management
can only maintain direction whereas Leaders can bring
about change.

• Leaders Are Born. My pet subject. How many times
haven’t we been told or heard that leaders are
naturally gifted and just born that way. This fact
cannot be further from the truth. The reason why most
people don’t want to lead is because they are being
held accountable and therefore they are hesitant or
• The Knowledge Myth. It is often believed that the person with
just plain scared to accept certain responsibilities.
the best knowledge in a specific field is automatically the
leader. Well, once again there are, for
Anyone can be a leader and today there are programs that
instance, research scientists and other academics at
can teach candidates. Once you are prepared to accept the
Universities and other tertiary institutes that have vastly
responsibility for a function, it then requires you have a vision
superior knowledge in their fields but once again do
of where yo H