Leadership vs. Management
I am currently reading the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and I found some great thought on the differences between leadership and management. “Management is a bottom line focus: how can I best accomplish certain things?” Leadership determines what needs to be accomplished. Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis describe “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things” Sometimes we are so busy trying to be managers and just reach a goal without really evaluation if that goal is right. Effective leadership is more necessary than ever. We need more a vision of the end. It is easier to come up with what needs to be done after but a lot of thinking needs to be done first. It seems that with this management class we are truly learning how to manage. We are not really taught how to be leaders but rather just go through the motions so that we can do all the readings, homework, group work and on time. This takes up so much time that as students we never have the opportunity to think why we are doing all of this and to truly reflect. We don’t have time.
Comments
Posted by: Kevin Sudnik
Posted on: November 6, 2005 04:59 PM
I certainly agree with your assessment. I think you speak for all of us when you speak of being so bombarded with work that you never have time to reflect. It is about time somebody put it into writing, because I'm sure more people than just me feel the same way. But then again, this is Management class, not leadership class, and the "Weatherhead School of Management", not the "Weatherhead School of Leadership"
Posted by: Josiah Boeggeman
Posted on: November 6, 2005 10:34 PM
I am also in agreement with your blog entry. It seems like we are doing so much busy work that we never have a chance to think about it. At times it can be mind-numbing. But, it seems like they are trying to make things hectic on purpose to give us an idea of what the "real world" is like. I only hope that in the process of learning how to manage people, hopefully we will also learn how to lead them as well.