The leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, “Wrong jungle!” But how do the busy, efficient producers and managers often respond? “Shut up! We’re making progress.”Īs individuals, groups, and businesses, we’re often so busy cutting through the undergrowth we don’t even realize we’re in the wrong jungle. The managers are behind them, sharpening their machetes, writing policy and procedure manuals, holding muscle development programs, bringing in improved technologies, and setting up working schedules and compensation programs for machete wielders. They’re cutting through the undergrowth, clearing it out. They’re the producers, the problem solvers.

You can quickly grasp the important difference between the two if you envision a group of producers cutting their way through the jungle with machetes.

Management is a bottom-line focus: How can I best accomplish certain things? Leadership deals with the top line: What are the things I want to accomplish? In the words of both Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, “Management is doing things right leadership is doing the right things.” Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

Leadership and Management are two different things. Leadership is not management.

Stephen covey leadership