“Management is doing things right,
Leadership is doing the right things.”
Warren Bennis & Peter Drucker.
“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success,
Leadership determines if the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”
See the important difference;
Imagine a group of producers cutting their way through the jungle with machetes.
They’re the producers, the problem solvers. They’re cutting through the undergrowth clearing it out.
The managers are behind them, sharpening their machetes, writing policy and procedure manuals,
holding muscle development programs, bringing in improved technologies
and setting up working schedules and compensation plans for machete wielders.
The leader is the one who climbs up the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells “Wrong Jungle!”
But how do the busy efficient producers and managers often respond? “Shut up! We’re making progress.”
Effectiveness, often even survival, does not depend solely on how much effort we expend,
but whether or not the effort we expend is in the right jungle.
– except & paraphrased from Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People