Adapted from the upcoming 'The Wall Street Journal Guide to Management' by Alan Murray, published by Harper Business.
Leadership and management must go hand in hand. They are not the same thing. But they are necessarily linked, and complementary. Any effort to separate the two is likely to cause more problems than it solves.
Still, much ink has been spent delineating the differences. The manager's job is to plan, organize and coordinate. The leader's job is to inspire and motivate. In his 1989 book 'On Becoming a Leader,' Warren Bennis composed a list of the differences:
The manager administers; the leader innovates.
The manager is a copy; the leader is an original.
The manager maintains; the leader develops.
The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people.
The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.
The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.
The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the leader's eye is on the horizon.
The manager imitates; the leader originates.
The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.
The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his or her own person.
The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.
Perhaps there was a time when the calling of the manager and that of the leader could be separated. A foreman in an industrial-era factory probably didn't have to give much thought to what he was producing or to the people who were producing it. His or her job was to follow orders, organize the work, assign the right people to the necessary tasks, coordinate the results, and ensure the job got done as ordered. The focus was on efficiency.
But in the new economy, where value comes increasingly from the knowledge of people, and where workers are no longer undifferentiated cogs in an industrial machine, management and leadership are not easily separated. People look to their managers, not just to assign them a task, but to define for them a purpose. And managers must organize workers, not just to maximize efficiency, but to nurture skills, develop talent and inspire results.
The late management guru Peter Drucker was one of the first to recognize this truth, as he was to recognize so many other management truths. He identified the emergence of the 'knowledge worker,' and the profound differences that would cause in the way business was organized.
With the rise of the knowledge worker, 'one does not 'manage' people,' Mr. Drucker wrote. 'The task is to lead people. And the goal is to make productive the specific strengths and knowledge of every individual.'
領導和管理缺一不可。二者并不是一回事,卻無疑是相互聯系、互為補充的。任何將二者分開的做法都可能會造成事倍功半的結果。
不過,關于領導和管理之間區別的描述已有很多。管理者的工作是計劃、組織和協調。領導者的工作則是激勵人心、鼓舞干勁。華倫•班尼斯(Warren Bennis)在1989年出版的《領導者該做什么》(On Becoming a Leader)一書中列出了領導者和管理者之間的不同。
-管理者從事管理,領導者進行創新。
-管理者是“拷貝”,領導者是“原版”。
-管理者著重維護,領導者著重發展。
-管理者關注系統和結構,領導者關注人。
-管理者依靠控制,領導者激發信任。
-管理者看眼前,領導者看長遠。
-管理者問的是“怎樣”、“何時”,領導者問的是“什么”、“為何”。
-管理者關注利潤,領導者縱觀全局。
-管理者模仿,領導者創造。
-管理者接受現狀,領導者挑戰現狀。
-管理者是標準的好兵,領導者自有主見。
-管理者把事情做好,領導者則做正確的事。
或許曾有一度管理者和領導者的工作可以被分開。工業時代,工廠中的工長或許不需要太多地考慮自己在生產什么或是考慮工人的情況。工長的工作就是聽從命令、組織生產、讓合適的人去完成必要的工作、協調結果、確保工作如指令的一樣完成。他關注的是效率。
不過在新經濟時代,價值越來越多地來自人們的知識,工人們不再是機器上一模一樣的齒輪,在這種情況下,管理和領導不能簡單地分開。人們看著他們的管理者,不光是等他交待工作,還等他給他們定一個目標。管理者們必須組織工人,不光是將效率最大化,還要培養技能、發展人才、產生結果。
已故管理大師彼得•德魯克(Peter Drucker,又譯杜拉克)是最先認識到這種變化的人之一,他還發現了很多其他管理真理。他確定了“知識工人”的出現,以及由此帶來的企業管理方式上的深刻變化。
德魯克寫道,隨著知識工人的崛起,一個人并不是“管理”其他人,他的任務是領導其他人,目的是充分發揮每個人特有的優點和知識。