Leadership

According to R. J. House, leadership is "the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members". No matter how one defines leadership, it typically involves an element of vision. A vision provides direction to the influence process. A leader (or group of leaders) can have one or more visions of the future to aid them to move a group successfully towards this goal.

Warren Bennis (1989) interestingly drew 12 distinctions between Leaders and Managers:

Managers administer, leaders innovate

Managers ask how and when, leaders ask what and why

Managers focus on systems, leaders focus on people

Managers do things right, leaders do the right things

Managers maintain, leaders develop

Managers rely on control, leaders inspire trust

Managers have a short-term perspective, leaders have a longer-term perspective

Managers accept the status-quo, leaders challenge the status-quo

Managers have an eye on the bottom line, leaders have an eye on the horizon

Managers imitate, leaders originate

Managers emulate the classic good soldier, leaders are their own person

Managers copy, leaders show originality

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23.01.2007. 08:11