Leadership as conventionally conceived is disempowering because it is paternalistic. We are far too dependent on leaders to have some special insight into the future. Organizations need to cast off their outdated concept of leadership if they want to reap the full power of employee creativity.

The never ending debate on whether there are any universal leadership traits depends on how leadership is defined. The conventional view of leadership associates it with high office. Recent research suggests that such leaders share certain traits. But there is another way of defining leadership that calls the trait theory into question.

Leadership can be equated with group domination, getting things done through people or challenging the status quo. While you can do all three, there are critically important differences between these three conceptions of leadership. When they are fully worked through, we can see a way to develop a revolutionary new understanding of leadership.

The conventional meaning of leadership is based on a single person occupying a role within a group. But leadership can be shown by outsiders, such as when Jack Welch's ideas had a leadership impact on businesses around the world. Such "extra-group" leadership is a one-off act, not a role. A full understanding of this type of leadership enables us to break the stranglehold of role-based leadership and develop a wholly new concept of leadership, one that is more appropriate for our knowledge-based 21st century.

Before managers can develop their employees, it is important for them to think through their own responsibilities and what is needed to do their own jobs well. This is important for employee development because employees can only be successful if they help their managers achieve their objectives.

Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. Various business analysis techniques can be used in strategic planning. In order to determine where it is going, the organization needs to know exactly where it stands, then determines where it wants to go and how it will get there. The resulting document is called the "strategic plan". 

Companies are often tempted to define themselves solely by WHAT they do. This article explains that  competing on HOW they do it, and therefore how they are organised, may turn out to be even more important.

The meaning of leadership is changing. Once it meant providing direction. Now leaders are said to be facilitators who draw ideas for new directions out of others. This is a defensive move to preserve the status quo view that senior executives are the real leaders in organizations. It is time to question this outlook.