What's the difference between a manager and a leader? Are leaders born or do we all have a leader lurking within? Can you learn how to be a leader? Where are you a leader in your life? As I'm bang in the middle of a leadership course it seems an appropriate time to be asking these kind of questions. Finding your Natural Leadership Style looks at the leadership and the difference between managers and leaders and see which you are.

Great news! Bill Cullen, chairman of Renault Ireland is a keynote speaker at the Gloucestershire Professionals 'Growing Gloucestershire' Conference, aimed at local businesses, is on June 28 in Cheltenham. Come and be inspired by this extraordinary man. The details of the conference and much more are in Events/ goings on. There are also details of my next Leadership workshop Will The Real You Stand Up? which I'm co leading with the phenomenal IBM coach Veronica (Ronnie) Clifford.

For a splash of inspiration and insight on the leadership theme, dip into the Inspirational Quotes section.

In this issue:

Finding your Natural Leadership Style
Events/Goings on
Inspirational Quotes on Leadership

Good Books

Finding your Natural Leadership Style

Are you a natural leader? Or have you had leadership thrust upon you by dint of setting up your own business and employing staff? Are you more comfortable managing staff rather than leading them? What's the difference? Are you a leader or a follower?

I became interested in this thing called leadership quite late in life. I had always thought of it as something that men did. Of course there have been many notable women leaders throughout history including our own Queen Elizabeth 2nd. I would have described myself as a follower rather than a leader. When I asked my husband, who I would describe as a natural leader, when he first recognised his leadership qualities he said when he was five years old! Yet when I started to examine the qualities of a leader: they have good self knowledge (how can you lead others if you don’t understand human nature) they wish to be of service and to co-operate with others. They demonstrate integrity, optimism, they have a vision and are passionate and enthusiastic. These are all qualities I value and espouse I thought. Maybe I am a leader I thought? I certainly wish to be a leader of one, which is me! As part of my personal development I am enrolled in a leader programme which is provoking me to delve further and become aware of my own leadership qualities and abilities and what I stand for, what impact I wish to have on the world and generally what I’m about. When I asked one of my colleagues on the course why she was attracted to leadership she said she wanted to lead her staff rather than manage them. So what’s the difference? Warren Bennis, American scholar, and pioneer of the contemporary field of leadership studies. drew twelve distinctions between mangers and leaders:

• Managers administer, leaders innovate
• Managers ask how and when, leaders ask what and why
• Managers focus on systems, leaders focus on people
• Managers do things right, leaders do the right things
• Managers maintain, leaders develop
• Managers rely on control, leaders inspire trust
• Managers have a short-term perspective, leaders have a longer-term perspective
• Managers accept the status-quo, leaders challenge the status-quo
• Managers have an eye on the bottom line, leaders have an eye on the horizon
• Managers imitate, leaders originate
• Managers emulate the classic good soldier, leaders are their own person
• Managers copy, leaders show originality

Source www.Wikipedia.org

We all need to manage, being a good manager is essential. The question is do you dare to lead? Do you dare to declare what has to be in your life, to put your stake in the ground? My personal stake is to dare to be real, to be authentically me at all times and encourage others to be their authentic selves; including in the boardroom and with staff and clients alike. Do you dare to take your heart and soul into your workplace? Do you dare to be an agent for change to create a culture of compassion as well as competition? Where are you a leader? What is your natural style? If you are interested in finding out more about your authentic leadership style you are warmly invited to my next leadership workshop, details in Good Stuff. It takes courage to take a stand, it could be finishing work at a stated time and getting home to be with the family. We all have it in us to be courageous. Another definition of a leader is they do the right thing. We all know in our hearts what doing the right thing is. Where will you lead today?

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Events/Goings on

In Gloucestershire...

One of the joys of my life is getting out and about, meeting new people and getting to know those I’ve met better. I love networking, to me it’s what we all do all the time we’re participating in life anyway. We’re all making connections all the time. So in this section it is my pleasure to share news, information and books that I’ve come across in the past few months. It’s a miscellany of ‘stuff’ really. Do let me know what you like or don’t and if there’s anything you would like to share I’d love to hear from you.

Big news, Bill Cullen is coming to town! Many of you who have been long time readers of Stepping into the Magic of You! Know that it has been a dream of mine to find a way of bringing Bill Cullen to speak to the business people of Gloucestershire and the dream is becoming real on June 28. It just shows what the power of having an intention can achieve. More about that in the autumn edition of Stepping Into The Magic of You…

Growing Gloucestershire - The Gloucestershire Professionals Conference is back for its third successful year and in 2007 will be led by the Gloucestershire Enterprise Network (GEN). For details go to their website

In London...

'Will The Real You Please Stand Up?' - the fundamentals of Authentic Leadership presented to you by the MERC Group of co-active Leaders, Maria Evans and Ronnie Clifford with backgrounds in Corporate blue chip companies and training, both are Certified Professional Coaches and graduating the CTI Leadership program in 2007.

Date: 9 August
Location: at the beautiful Lensbury Club nested on the river Thames at Teddington Lock www.lensbury.co.uk/

This one day experiential workshop will focus on helping you to:

• Differentiate between your most powerful self and your inner Critic
• Choose your next leadership roles/moves
• Create your own leadership Statement and Goals

The day is designed to be spacious and fun and will run from 9.30am to 5pm.

Cost: £100 per person (ex VAT) and £160 per person including overnight stay and dinner (ex VAT). Bring your partner along to share in the experience over night for an extra cost of £20 per couple.

This is a great opportunity to boost your confidence, build your self belief and take a step closer to your Leadership Goals.

Here is what previous participants had to say about the workshop:

• I can do anything and I am very powerful.
• I will remain authentic and true to myself and others.
• A new sense/awareness of who I am and what I stand for.
• Very creative and engaging. Especially loved the self limiting beliefs and the promise at the end.

For more information and to register email maria@creating-results.co.uk
Or Veronica (Ronnie) Clifford Realcoaching4u@yahoo.co.uk

Registration will require a £50 deposit and the remainder of the balance is due 30 days before the scheduled event.

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Inspirational Quotes on Leadership

Leadership is not magnetic personality—that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not "making friends and influencing people"—that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.

Peter F. Drucker

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him..But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, "We did it ourselves.

Lao Tzu

Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.

Warren Bennis

To work in the world lovingly means that we are defining what we will be for, rather than reacting to what we are against.

Christina Baldwin

Blessed is the leader who seeks the best for those he serves.

Unknown

A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn't like the tune.

Anon

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

John F Kennedy

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Good Books

There are lots of books on leadership. One I read it recently is Leadership and Self Deception. Getting out of the Box. Written by The Arbinger Institute. Published by Berrett Koehler Publishers.

Another excellent transformational book is The Art of Possibility By Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander published by Penguin.

You will find details of Bill Cullen’s book Golden Apples 6 Simple Steps To Success and many others on my website.

That’s it for now. I hope you’ve enjoyed this summer edition of the magazine. Please forward it to colleagues, friends who you think might like it. I’m always interested to hear from you. I’m particularly interested to hear of issues you would like airing, so get emailing me! If you can make it to the GEN conference I look forward to seeing you there.

Whatever you do, have a wonderful summer.

Be magical and shine!