Simply put: leadership is mostly ‘of the heart’ while management is mostly ‘of the head’.

The word ‘management’ comes from the Latin word ‘manus’, meaning ‘hand’. Leadership comes from the Anglo-Saxon language and can be seen in the German word ‘leitung’, meaning guidance and conduct. The gender of the word ‘leitung’ is feminine which alerts us to the relevance of emotional intelligence.

Management is more focused on thoughts while leadership is more focused on feelings. But leadership is more than this – it is a selfless act focused on the best interests of others which leads us to a second key question; how can we improve our leadership?

To lead better we have to change ourselves and this change is about becoming more of who we are – not less! It starts with self-awareness and this is the key difference between leadership and management courses.

Management can be improved through cognitive lessons, tools and techniques, whereas leadership courses have to look at more profound self-awareness which inevitably takes us out of our comfort zone.