Leadership and Management by Stephen R. Covey Management is a “bottom line” focus (How can I best accomplish certain things?) Leadership deals with the “top line” (what are the things I want to accomplish?). In the words of both Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, “Management is doing things correctly; Leadership is doing the correct things.” Management is efficiency in “climbing the ladder” of success; leadership determines whether “the ladder is leaning against the right wall.” You can quickly grasp the important difference between the two if you envision a group of LABORERS cutting their way through the jungle with machetes. They are the producers, the problem solvers. They are cutting through the undergrowth, clearing it out. The MANAGERS are behind them, ensuring that the machetes are sharpen, writing policy and procedure manuals, holding muscle development programs, bringing in improved technologies, and setting up working schedules and compensation programs for the machete wielders. The LEADER is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, “Wrong jungle!” But how do the busy, efficient labors and managers often respond [to this]? “Shut up! We are making progress.” As individuals, groups, and businesses, we are often so busy cutting through the undergrowth we do not even realize we are in the wrong jungle. And the rapidly changing environment in which we live makes effective leadership more critical than it has ever been – in every aspect of independent and interdependent life. Today, we are more in need of a vision or destination and a compass (a set of principles or directions) and less in need of a road map. We often do not know what the terrain ahead will be like or what we will need to go through it; much will depend on our “judgment at the time.” But an inner compass will always give us direction. Effectiveness (often even survival) does not depend solely on how much effort we expend, but on whether or not the effort we expend is in the right jungle. And the metamorphosis taking place in most every industry and profession demands “leadership first and management second.” In business, the market is changing so rapidly that many products and services that successfully met consumer tastes and needs a few years ago are obsolete today. Proactive powerful leadership must constantly monitor environmental change, particularly customer buying habits and motives, and provide the force necessary to organize resources in the right direction. Such changes as deregulation of the airline industry, skyrocketing costs of health care, and the greater quality and quantity of imported cars affect the environment in significant ways. If industries do not monitor the environment, including their own work teams, and exercise the creative leadership to keep headed in the right direction, no amount of management expertise can keep them from failing. Efficient management without effective leadership is, as one individual has phrased it, “like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.” No management success an compensate for failure in leadership. But leadership is hard because we are often caught in a management paradigm. CONCERNING MICRO-MANAGEMENT: At the final session of a year-long executive development program in Seattle, Washington, the president of an oil company came up to me and said, “Stephen, when you pointed out the difference between leadership and management in the second month, I looked at my role as the president of this company and realized that I had never been into leadership. I was deep into management; buried by pressing challenges and the details of day-to-day logistics. So I decided to withdraw from management; I could get other people to do that. I wanted to really lead my organization. It was hard, I went through withdrawal pains because I stopped dealing with a lot of pressing, urgent matters that were right in front of me and which gave me a sense of immediate accomplishment. I did not receive much satisfaction as I started wrestling with the direction issues, the culture building issues, the deep analysis of problems, the seizing of new opportunities. Others also went through withdrawal pains from their working style comfort zones. They missed the easy accessibility I had given them before. They still wanted me to be available to them, to respond, to help solve their problems on a day-today basis. But I persisted; I was absolutely convinced that I needed to provide leadership. And I did! Today, our whole business is different; we are more in line with our environment. We have doubled our revenues and quadrupled our profits. I am onto leadership.” No micro-management here, just a clear line between management and leadership. I am also convinced that too often parents are trapped in the management paradigm, thinking of control, efficiency, and rules instead of direction, purpose, and family feelings. And leadership is even more lacking in our personal lives. We are into managing with efficiency, setting and achieving goals before we have even clarified our values. Stephen R. Covey A focus of management is ethics
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 23:03:03 +0000
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