Monday, February 26, 2007

Difference Between Leaders and Managers (5)

Below an overview of the behaviors typically displaid by managers and leaders. Of course this is a theoretical approach, no one in uppermanagement is 100 % leader and 0 % manager at the same time or vice versa. Most people in uppermanagement move along the behavioral scale as displaid here.


(keywords for this subject: managers versus leaders, managers vs leaders, leaders and management, management and leadership)

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Difference Between Managers and Leaders (4)

The goal of a manager is to maximise the output of the organization via administrative implementation. Managers therefore carry the following functions:
  • organization
  • planning
  • staffing
  • directing
  • controlling
Leadership is actually just a component of the directing function. This leads to the fact that a leader is not always required in (part of) the organization.
A leader is someone who people naturally follow through their own choice, whereas a manager must be obeyed. A manager may only have obtained his position of authority through time and loyalty given to the company, not as a result of his leadership qualities. A leader may have no organisational skills, but his vision unites people behind him.

Management usually consists of people who are experienced in their field, and who have worked their way up the company. A manager knows how each layer of the system works and may also possess a good technical knowledge. A leader can be a new arrival to a company who has bold, fresh, new ideas but might not have experience or wisdom.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

New StyleJournal soon to be released

I had a day off. Children have their semester break this week in Belgium. In Flanders we call it the 'Crocus Holiday' because of the crocus popping up in the gardens. A while ago I asked the printer who is printing the magazines and stickers for The Wall Street Journal if it would be possible to visit his printplant with my boys during day time once. Today was the day. We were lucky because all the machines were in full operation. The printplant became a gigantic theater for Vic and Bob. The boys conjured up a smile on the face of the personnel. I'd like the boys to see how many people are behind a magazine or a newspaper. They shouldn't take a printproduct or any other product for granted.

Unexpectedly the printer started binding the new issue of StyleJournal a day earlier as programmed, so we saw the first magazines come of the binding unit. While speaking to the operator of the machine I suddenly saw the boys intensely looking at a certain page in the magazine. Pure joy.
All the magazines will be send to our 10 printplants around Europe as of tomorrow, to be inserted in The Wall Street Journal newspaper issue Friday 02-03-2007.


StyleJournal is published 4 times a year as a free insert in the European edition of The Wall Street Journal newspaper. The spring issue features Roger Federer on the cover. Other articles involve Roman Abramovich, owner of football club Chelsea; John Tavolta and his 707; Chris Bangle, BMW group's design chief; and a collection of sports watches I can't afford.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Difference Between Leaders and Managers (2)

Management works within the paradigm. Leadership creates new paradigms.
Management works within the system. Leadership works on the system.
Management is problem-oriented. Leadership is opportunity oriented.
(Stephen Covey, 1994)


While management establishes specific purpose and mission, makes work productive and effectively manages social impacts (Drucker, 2001), leaders influence others to willingly achieve the group's vision for success.
Antoine de Saint Exupery gave meaning to what leaders should do in 'The Wisdom of the Sands':
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."

Although eloquently put, it shouldn't put managers down compared to leaders. It is clear that ships are not build by leaders alone. It is important to understand that leadership and management are roles within an organization that are both desperately needed. At best management and leadership work in tandem to reach an overall goal.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Difference Between Leaders and Managers (1)

Warren Gameliel Bennis (1925 - ) a scholar who pioneered in the field of leadership studies illustrated the difference between managers and leaders the following way:

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

Following up on Trader Magazine Ops in London on Valentine's day.


50.000 Trader Magazines destined to go to London.
The high quality glossy magazines are printed in Belgium.


Main target: Traders working in the financial district around Canary Wharf.


Delivery people hardly see daylight. All deliveries take place underground
in order not to disturb normal traffic during daytime at street level.


Brokers discussing Valentine's gift.



New: To feed the high earning Trader: A Truffle and Caviar island
in the corridor under the Canary Wharf center skyscrapers.

My diner after midnight. Most of it retrievable in hotelroom's waste basket.


The Wall Street Journal printplant and the WSJE fulfilment company where Trader Magazine is processed are currently located at Stratford. Picture above: First signs of preparation to tear down old buildings around Stratford to make place for the Olympic games in 2012. Both our printplant and fulfilment company are forced to relocate to new sites the coming months.






Monday, February 12, 2007

Harvard University elects first female president.

Drew Gilpin Faust, a historian of 59, was named the university's 28th president. She is the first woman president in Harvard's 371 year history. Faust is the first Harvard president who did not graduate at the university itself since 1672. (Charles Chauncy, a former Cambridge alumnus from England died in office at Harvard that year). Faust attended Bryn Mawr College and the University of Pennsylvania, where she was also a professor of history. Born Catherine Gilpin in a privileged family in Virginia, Faust was dean of Radcliffe since 2001, a think-tank with 87 employees and a $17 million budget. The Radcliffe women’s college was merged into Harvard University in 1999, as a research center with a mission to study gender issues. Faust will preside now over Harvard's 11 schools and colleges, 24.000 employees and a budget of $3 billion. The Harvard presidency is considered by many the most prestigious job in higher education worldwide. Harvard is the oldest university in the US.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Management Jobs - Collaboration with Jobat.

I am very happy to present a new item in the left side bar of this blog under 'Management Jobs', it is a specially for this blog designed Jobat ticker. As from today you can find daily updated management openings in the ticker. An ingenious system filters specific management openings out of the database of one of Belgium's biggest job providers. Every new visitor of this blog will see a different set of job openings. I want to thank the people of Jobat for the development and support.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Thank You! 25.000th visitor to the Impactroom blog.

This week, on Wednesday 01-31-2007, the 25.000st visitor came by to check out the Impactroom blog. Thx to all visitors and readers for your support!

Thursday, February 01, 2007

BAM! The new ad campaign for The Wall Street Journal - so good it feels like it was made in Europe

Now and then the mammoth you're working for does something that shakes you up, forces you to take position, at work, in life, or plainly surprises you. Today was one of these days for me. I saw the ad-campaign for the renewed US version of The Wall Street Journal. It is the first 'big' brand advertising campaign in 10 years. Understandably it will only run in the US. It has a European touch though (because it is so smart :-)
I know it is not 'cool' these days to admit you actually admire the multinational you're working for for something that was decided and executed at the other side of the world. But I can't help myself in this case. The way the Journal is portrayed is very appealing.

Gordon Crovitz, one of the executive VP's of DowJones, said the following about the campaign:

"The tagline for this campaign is "Every journey needs a Journal." The advertisements feature a diverse group of successful men and women, all icons leading their fields. Each includes a "life journal" that incorporates a Journal article to show how the Journal makes a difference in the lives of readers.

This campaign promotes the Journal however, whenever and wherever people want it-in print, online, mobile and other channels. .....

Some of the featured readers are CEOs inspired by what they read. JetBlue founder David Neeleman, for example, recalled as a college student in 1979 reading a page-one Journal article on airline deregulation. "When I read this article, I started thinking, how would this change air travel and could we create something that could really appeal to the masses as opposed to the elite few?"
Singer-songwriter and producer Sheryl Crow says the Journal has long been part of her life. "My grandmother was a newspaper editor, which was very unusual for women at that time, and she was very, very strict about what she read," Ms. Crow told us. "The Journal was always around our house. For me, growing up, that was the serious newspaper. Now, watching how reporting has taken a turn toward the tabloid, I appreciate the Journal because it is fair journalism you can count on." She chose to highlight a Journal article on breast cancer.

Other featured readers include Tiki Barber, former New York Giants running back; Jake Burton, founder and chairman of Burton Snowboards; Kenneth Cole of Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc.; Oscar De La Hoya, Olympic Gold Medal boxer and head of Golden Boy Promotions; Steven Levitt, University of Chicago professor and co-author of "Freakonomics;" Maya Lin, architect and designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.; Paul Teutel Sr. of the reality TV series "American Chopper;" and Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse restaurant and healthy foods advocate.

These featured readers did not seek payment for their endorsements. Instead, the Journal is contributing advertising space to their favorite charities. Giving back is part of the journey of success for Journal readers.

Brand experts say the Journal is very unusual, perhaps unique, in what marketers call its "brand equities". Journal readers and non-readers alike give the Journal very high marks for integrity, authority accuracy and fairness. The Journal's reputation in these areas is, of course, our most important asset, earned by the work of generations of Journal reporters, writers and editors.

Our challenge, however, is that non-readers who have educational levels, careers and incomes that suggest they would benefit from reading the Journal differ from our readers in one key respect: Too often, they say the Journal "isn't for people like me." It's this perception among non-readers we'd most like to correct.

The campaigns web site at http://www.journey.wsj.com/ includes all the print and online advertisements. It includes video interviews with the featured celebrities explaining their ties to the Journal. There are also interactive features, including the ability for readers to post their own life's journeys and the role the Journal plays. "