Management vs. Leadership

Robert X. Cringely wrote a nice little post about Leadership recently. Everybody has lots to say on this topic – most of which is meaningless blubber – but I was particularly impressed with these little gems (emphasis added):

“Management is telling people what to do, which is a vital part of any industrial economy. Leadership is figuring out what ought to be done then getting people to do it, which is very different. It is a vital part of any successful post-industrial economy, too, but most managers don’t know that.

…

In contrast to the military, most businesses do a lot less explaining and pondering and a lot more laying down edicts. That’s management, which works fine on an assembly line, but not at all well building a big software application or winning a war.“