Leading and Managing

Leading and Managing

Throughout this book we have frequently used the term “leader” rather than “manager” to describe the skills needed by consultants. This is deliberate. In the literature on leadership, leadership is associated with creating, stimulating, and fostering change, whereas management is about establishing stability and order and controlling complexity (Kotter, 1990). To be successful, a consultant must be a leader and a manager. As consultants, we certainly manage our complex projects with proposals, budgets, plans, and performance coaching, but we cannot control our clients. Consultants must lead clients to adopt the changes we are recommending, and we must lead our team members through the steps and challenges ...

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