Many people go through their entire careers dreaming of becoming a leader, but without fully understanding what the role is all about. This is the type of job that is ideal for some people but not for everyone. Therefore, before setting your heart on being a leader it is worth looking at the most important skills needed and seeing whether you possess them.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve noticed that fitness watches are everywhere. You might even be wearing one right now – but even if you aren’t, you’ve seen them around. For health-minded people, these ingenious devices provide all kinds of useful feedback: number of steps taken, number of calories burned, number of hours slept, etc.

Cloud computing and related technologies are becoming increasingly attractive to smaller businesses, and it’s not hard to see why. This trend is simply following in the footsteps of all of the technological advances of the last few decades – designed to, among other things, help smaller businesses compete more effectively with large corporations. And it works.

SMBs have their own kinds of challenges and can prove highly sensitive to fluctuating market conditions. They can also be dynamic, fast-growing and innovative. Whatever the circumstances, they require great leadership – yet many business owners come close to sinking their own ship.

A teacher who only accepts their own way to solve a task. A supermarket manager who has to double-check every item that you’ve stacked. A leader who stifles the creative freedom of his or her staff. Whether in the classroom or at work, leaders who micromanage do more to hinder development than drive desired outcomes.

Despite what you may think, leaders and managers are different beasts; they have distinctively different jobs, but equally important roles to play. The former makes sure the company succeeds by inspiring and well, leading, staff. The latter makes sure that the performance is kept at acceptable levels.

Qualities alone do not realise goals. There are also practices that should be enacted as often as possible in order to make the most of your leadership skills.

"What's dangerous is not to evolve.” – Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon. Do you rule by fear like Jeff Bezos, who managed to transport his whole company into a Lord of the Flies-esque environment where it’s kill or be killed (crying heard at desks, employees encouraged to "tear apart one another's ideas")?