FollowtheLeader.indd

LEADERS ARE PARTNERS

• Managers focus on making sure that things ‘get done right’
  while leaders focus on making sure that the ‘right things get
  done’.^22


• Effective management is putting first things first. While
  leadership decides what ‘first things’ are, it is management that
  puts them first, day-by-day, moment-by-moment; management
  is carrying it out.^23


• Management is bottom line focus: ‘How can I best accomplish
  certain things?’ Leadership deals with the top line: ‘What are
  the things I want to accomplish?’...Management is efficiency
  in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines
  whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall...Efficient
  management without effective leadership is...‘like straightening
  deck chairs on the Titanic.’ No management success can
  compensate for failure in leadership.^24

Perhaps the most famous leadership guru in the business world today is
Peter Drucker. He continuously advises more Fortune 500 companies,
and international businesses than perhaps any other person. He exalts
the lofty role that good management has played in the Western world by
writing:

In less than 150 years, management has transformed the social and

economic fabric of the world’s developed countries. It has created

a global economy and set new rules for countries that would

participate in that economy as equals.^25

What I believe Drucker is saying is this: It has been the combination of
leadership and management that has caused the developed countries of
the world to rise economically to where they are today. The Western
world – primarily Europe and North America – has been blessed with
many visionary entrepreneurs and business tycoons who have led the
industrial revolution. Their people enjoy the highest standard of living
known in history. These visionary leaders were also surrounded by a
host of good managers who were indispensable in this technological,
economic and social revolution. Most of the underdeveloped countries
today lack both visionary leadership and competent management. They
are not able to participate in the new global economy as equals. They are