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The Best Leadership Is Good Management by Henry Mintzberg
Very well said. I have never been comfortable with the attempts to separate leadership from managing. Normally the tone is that leadership is what matters and managing is just then carrying out what leaders have determined and allowed.
I understand why we focus some areas of management as in the area of leadership: it is hard to understand the whole all at once. We can make sense of things more easily by breaking them down (analysis) and speaking of aspects as within the realm of leadership is part of this. We can discuss certain traits as leadership-related. And we can discuss the difference between leadership and power based on position: so leaders within an organization separate from those with authority shown on the organizational chart. But I do not see management and leadership as separate things.
Books by Henry Mintzberg: Managing (2009) – Managers Not MBAs – The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning
Related: Akio Toyoda’s Message Shows Real Leadership – Seven Leadership Leverage Points – If Your Staff Doesn’t Bring You Problems That is a Bad Sign – Management Improvement Leaders
Leadership is not separate from execution. But the idea of leadership as “doing the right things” while management is “doing things right” concepts serve to separate leadership from execution. But “doing the right things” poorly is not good leadership and “doing things well” that shouldn’t be done is good management. As Deming’s management philosophy (system thinking) management is about many interconnected, interdependent areas that cannot be separated into distinct areas.
6 Leadership Competencies from my favorite management book: The Leader’s Handbook.
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Aug | Oct » | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | ||||
September 7th, 2009 at 10:10 am
It also explains why targets came into vogue. An easy throw away thing to try and provoke improvement with no effort.
See this article on targets in the UK public sector: http://www.thesystemsthinkingreview.co.uk/index.php?pg=18&backto=1&utwkstoryid=184
Loads of video and evidence
September 9th, 2009 at 9:09 am
John,
Your article supports John Kotter’s article in the Harvard Business Review that the ideal manager is really a leader/manager. Leader/ managers can inspire and lead people to a vision and at the same time manage and execute to appropriate processes, procedures, incentives etc.
September 10th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
I’ve heard it said that managers have subordinates and leaders have followers. Ultimately it is the job of the manager to set a startegy, purpose, values and vision for this team. To me the cross over is fuzzy.
September 28th, 2009 at 11:35 am
I like the explanation… Too much thinkin’, too little doin’ what was known to work. I’m not sure I believe that’s really the ROOT cause of the problems we’re experiencing right now, but it undoubtedly plays a part in it.