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)

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.

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.

Difference Between Leaders and Managers (3)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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. "

Mission Statement - Microsoft

Contrary to the Mission Statement of General Electric (GE)(see former post), the Mission Statement of Microsoft sounds a bit dull. I can't imagine Microsoft employees being moved by their Mission Statement. It is short, full of platitudes and the Mission, frankly, could be the Mission of any consultancy company in the world. I don't think they actually felt a need to produce a Mission Statement at Microsoft, but somehow in a moment of weakness an HR executive (not at the company anymore) realized he could stand out by writing the below Statement. Since then the 'thing' has been parked on the website.

----------------------------------------

Our Mission
At Microsoft, our mission and values are to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.

Our Values
As a company, and as individuals, we value integrity, honesty, openness, personal excellence, constructive self-criticism, continual self-improvement, and mutual respect. We are committed to our customers and partners and have a passion for technology. We take on big challenges, and pride ourselves on seeing them through. We hold ourselves accountable to our customers, shareholders, partners, and employees by honoring our commitments, providing results, and striving for the highest quality.

Corporate Citizenship
Every successful corporation has a responsibility to use its resources and influence to make a positive impact on the world and its people. MicrosoftÂ’s Global Citizenship Initiative is focused on mobilizing our resources across the company and around the world, to create opportunities in the communities where we do business, and to fulfill our commitment to serving the public good through innovative technologies and partnerships.

http://www.microsoft.com

Mission Statement - General Electric

Only GE can carry the below Mission Statement. For any other company the below Mission Statement would sound preposterous. It is the statement of a winner, it is as if their former CEO, Welch, is talking to you. It could be a speech of a student leader, bold, fearless, undaunted, prepared to deliver, but yet unfounded and therefore amusing. In this case however it is the passionate inheritance of a generation of company builders, managers, leaders who promised to build and know they already achieved their goals today and in the past. There is a clarity and certainty between the lines that makes you shiver.

------------------

Values - Imagine, solve, build and lead - four bold verbs that express what it is to be part of GE. Their action-oriented nature says something about who we are - and should serve to energize ourselves and our teams around leading change and driving performance.

For more than 125 years, GE has been admired for its performance and imaginative spirit. The businesses that we invent and build fuel the global economy and improve people's lives. Today, we are 11 technology, services and financial businesses with more than 300,000 employees in 160 countries around the world.

What unifies us? Our Actions and Values.

What we do and how we work is distinctly GE. It's a way of thinking and working that has grounded our performance for decades. It's a way of talking about our work and ourselves that takes the best from our past and expresses it in the spirit and language of GE today.
It's about who we are, what we believe, where we're headed, how we'll get there. It's how we imagine, solve, build and lead.

Imagine.
From the very beginnings of our company, when Thomas Edison was changing the world with the power of ideas, GE has always stood for one capability above all others - the ability to imagine. Imagine is a sense of possibility that allows for a freedom beyond mere invention. Imagine dares to be something greater. At GE, Imagine is an invitation to dream and do things that you didn't know you could do. Because at GE the act of imagining is fused with empowerment - the confidence that what we imagine, we can make happen.

Solve.
Every business has to have a reason to exist - a reason that answers the fundamental question of "why are we here?". For GE, the big question has a simple answer: We exist to solve problems - for our customers, our communities and societies, and for ourselves.

Build.
From 0 to 60 in six seconds? Try zero to $5 billion in five years. It's not so much a vision for our future - where we're headed is in many ways a reflection of where we've already been. It's not a destination. It's a quest. A quest for growth. And when we look to the future, we know that for us, there's only one way to get there. Build. Lead. Imagine. Solve. Build. Each of these is merely a word without one vital element:

Lead.
GE is already synonymous with leadership. But with this mantle comes responsibility. And it's not just a responsibility to maintain the status quo or manage what worked yesterday. It's the bigger responsibility to change. Because change is the essence of what it means to lead. It's a call to action that engages our unceasing curiosity, our passion, and our drive to be first in everything that we do.

We Are a Company to Believe In.

Imagine. Build. Solve. Lead.
In the end, our success is measured not only by our ability to think big, dazzling thoughts, but by our commitment to sweat the small stuff that brings ideas to life. It's a way - thinking and doing - that has been at the heart of GE for years.

The worth of this framework is how we translate it into our own personal work ethic and then extend it to our teams, businesses, cultures and different regions of the world. It's permission to cast aside any approach that seems dated - to imagine, solve, build and lead a better way of doing things.

Values
While GE has always performed with integrity and values, each business generation expresses those values according to the circumstances of the times. Now more than ever the expression and adherence to values is vital. More than just a set of words, these values embody the spirit of GE at its best. They reflect the energy and spirit of a company that has the solid foundation to lead change as business evolves. And they articulate a code of behavior that guides us through that change with integrity. The words reflected here represent a revitalization of our values. They are a call to action that asks every GE employee to recommit to a common set of beliefs about how we work in our world today. And while some of these words are new in their expression, they are based on a continuum of how GE has grown and performed through generations. They are our words and our values... in our own voice.

• Passionate
• Curious
• Resourceful
• Accountable
• Teamwork
• Committed
• Open
• Energizing
• Always With Unyielding Integrity

The GE Values Card

Mission Statement - International Herald Tribune - with a sense of humor...

The Mission statements keep coming in :-)
A very interesting mission statement is the one of the International Herald Tribune (IHT). Especially the last one of their Rules of the Road seems to energize some IHT employees.


Our Core Purpose
Enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high quality news, information and entertainment.

Our Core Values

• Content of the highest quality and integrity--This is the basis for our reputation and the means by which we fulfill the public trust and our customers' expectations.
• Fair treatment of employees based on respect, accountability and standards of excellence.
• Creating long-term shareholder value through investment and constancy of purpose.
• Good corporate citizenship.
  

Rules of the Road
Success at The New York Times Company means more than achieving our financial and journalistic goals. Our Company believes that all employees should conduct themselves in a manner consistent with our tenets of behavior, our Rules of the Road:

• Be stewards of our Company's brand reputation and assets.
• Treat each other with honesty, respect and civility.
• Uphold the highest journalistic, business and personal ethics.
• Keep a relentless focus on serving our customers.
• Innovate to reach our full competitive potential.
• Execute with urgency, agility and excellence.
• Champion diversity.
• Collaborate to harness our collective strengths.
• Achieve results by challenging yourself and mentoring others.
• Maintain perspective and a sense of humor.

Six Guiding Principles Starbucks Coffee Company

The '7 Winning Principles' of DowJones post triggered people to send me some other mission statements.
The Starbucks mission statement for example says:
The following six guiding principles will help us measure the appropriateness of our decisions:

1. Provide a great work environment and treat each other with respect and dignity.
2. Embrace diversity as an essential component in the way we do business.
3. Apply the highest standards of excellence to the purchasing, roasting and fresh delivery of our coffee.
4. Develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all of the time.
5. Contribute positively to our communities and our environment.
6. Recognize that profitability is essential to our future success.

The 7 Winning DowJones Principles

1. Make It Personal - all commit to make DowJones one of the world's most respected, admired and financially successful companies
2. Commit to the Virtuous Circle - excellent journalism, business and people are mutually reinforcing drivers of success
3. Live our Values - quality, integrity and independence, everywhere and always
4. Build Value - for our customers, shareholders and employees
5. Constantly Innovate - content, products, technology and business processes; purposeful change and smart risk-taking
6. Build Top Talent - attract, develop, motivate and retain the best, diverse talent; insist on teamwork; abhor silos
7. Get Results, Now - commit to action and results

Barracuda Management

Management style typically to be found in large multinationals where CEO's are send to lead daughtercompanies bringing along long term strategies but are pulled back after one year to serve in another daughtercompany leaving the long term strategy to be altered or destroyed by the next CEO.

Humor Between Different Levels of Employees.

A friend sent me the following overview, illustrating the use of humor between different levels of employees. It consists of live examples of communication between Qantas pilots and Qantas mechanics.

After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form, called a "gripe sheet," which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight.

Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor :-)

Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas' pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.

By the way, Qantas is the only major airline that has never, ever, had an accident.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what friction locks are for.

P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

About humour in professional situations:
Kahn argues (1989:46): "Each statement contains its own truths. If we attend to these statements, and piece together their various truths from clues within the contexts of their expression, we can tap into a rich source of information for understanding the dynamics of individual and group life in organisations."

Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

My brother, Jan, recently emigrated to South Africa. He's considered an expert on 'creativity'. Years ago he created a virtual creative community, membership surpassing 4.000 members today (http://www.addictlab.com). His office helps or helped clients such as BMW, Diesel, Nike, Thalys, IMEC, Levi's... Although from Belgium, he is quite a popular speaker in Australia.

Now he and his family are facing the transition to a completely different culture. His two kids (6 and 5) re-entered school this week. Not their little Flemish local community school, but an American International School in South Africa, with...guards, fences, English, 50 nationalities, and a daily morning ceremony including the 'code'. During this ceremony all childeren will recite a short code of just 3 lines, after which anybody with an issue, can address the community publicly. This way enabling the children to learn to speak in public. There is a lesson here.

The 'code':
Take care of yourself.
Take care of the others.
Take care of this place.

American International School in South Africa
Morning Ceremony including the 'Code'

The 10 UN Global Compact Principles

The owner of one of the biggest exhaust companies in the world, a Dutch entrepreneur, is building a villa (mansion) right across the street where I live. When reading about his company I found out his company committed itself to the UN Global Compact and its basic principles. Some of these principles sound so 'normal' to us, it wouldn't cross our mind to incorporate them in our business mission statement. But if you are producing goods on a global scale, with major operating units in some well known low labor cost countries, it doesn't hurt to hear and see your company stress its belief in doing the 'right' thing. I can imagine it has a healthy impact on the mindset of the managers in such environments.

The Global Compact is an international initiative by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, bringing together businesses and UN agencies, the labour world and the civil society around 10 principles related to human rights, labour standards, the environment and anti-corruption. Through the power of collective action, the Global Compact seeks to promote responsible corporate citizenship so that businesses can be part of the solution to the challenges of globalization.
The Global Compact asks companies to embrace, support and enact, within their sphere of influence, a set of 10 core values:

Human Rights

• Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and
• make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.

Labour

• Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
• the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;
• the effective abolition of child labour; and
• the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Environment

• Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;
• undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and
• encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.

Anti-Corruption

• Businesses should work against all forms of corruption, including extortion and bribery.

(source: http://www.unglobalcompact.org)