In my last blog post I defined leadership development as the improvement of your personal ability to lead, a process of self improvement.

Now, when you are working to become a great leader on your own this is as far as it needs to go. However when you are attempting to develop someone else as a leader I consider this to be an umbrella term which encompasses three fields which need to be treated separately:

• Leadology –  The study of power and people (teaching knowledge).
• Leadership training – The practice of the skills used in leading (training skills).
• Leadership coaching – Building the habits necessary to become an effective leader (coaching habit).

It is important to make the distinction because all three require different approaches and methodologies. You can be a great teacher and a poor coach, or a great trainer but a poor teacher.

These three skills, teaching; training and coaching, are important not only to the person wishing to develop leadership in others but also to the self-developed leader. This is because developing people is essential to being able to lead. It is one of the key attributes that followers need from their leaders… “Will I be able to grow with this person?”

Some more definitions to aid understanding of the above definitions:

• Power – The ability to make something happen in potentia.
• Leading – The realising of power and people to change the status quo.
• Leader – A person who both studies leadology and who leads.

I should add that these are my definitions for these words, the dictionary will say something quite different. However I believe language is a toolbox that should serve the needs of man, not the other way around and so within the context of leadership development this is what I mean when I use these words.

When I discuss how to develop leadership in other posts I will do so from the POV of someone developing leadership in others. Self-developing leaders can adapt the ideas to themselves with far greater ease then the other way around.