Will your colleagues want to work with you, if you did not have a university degree or a managerial position? This might be the ultimate check for proper leadership. It is also true for motivational speakers. Would audiences want to listen to them, if they didn't write books or haven't built an international speaking brand?
The complicatedness of the corporate arena is that many organizations are over fed with management and under nourished with leadership. The managerial side of things involves more technical detail and ways of procedure. Leadership is supposed to touch more on the priority of people. No one can deny that both priorities are essential, but usually the managerial method and organizational red tape are inclined to be the main concern. Many bosses will brand particular systems to be "professional" but in practice it is just formalities to mask lack of people skills or immaturity. It also rings true for a speaking business. There are categories of motivational speakers who will try to communicate skills with audiences about topics that they have yet to experience for themselves. What about motivational speakers, who instruct leadership to Fortune 500 companies, who have by no means been in the business sector even for a month? Audiences recognize the value of motivational speakers with previous workable know-how and who have climbed the corporate mountain through a real business career. These are the professional speakers who know what they talk about.
