ABSTRACT
In their book entitled Leaders, Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus observed that the problem with many organizations is that they are over-managed and under-led, meaning that the emphasis is often more on handling the daily routines rather than questioning whether the routines are even appropriate or desirable. This dilemma moved them to present the following distinction: managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing.1 Managers, in their view, are more concerned about efficiency while leaders focus more on vision and judgment, or effectiveness. Although intended to distinguish between the mechanical technocrat shuffling papers and following procedures, and the thoughtful visionary at the helm, the juxtaposition of manager versus leader presents a false dichotomy because the “best” bosses or managers must be concerned with, and proficient in, both domains. As we saw in Chapter 1, managers can be leaders and vice versa. The trains have to run on time, to borrow a well-worn metaphor, but those who run the trains also have to know where they are going and why. Because of their greater emotional investment and abil ity to relate to others, good enough managers naturally lean more in the direction of the “leader” in these terms. Viewing the process of managing as a “performing art,” Peter Vaill sees the central concern of leadership and management as values clarification. Leadership is the articulation and energetic presentation of new values and is a teaching and coaching process. The more day-to-day process of management involves the discovery and working through of value
conflicts. Managers seek harmony among existing elements while leaders seek to change the elements, and like Escher’s drawing hands, each set of actions is indispensable to the other. In an article about teaching – one of the cornerstones of good enough managing – I once put it this way: “Good tools and technical proficiency are essential to performing any task well; however, the difference between performing a task and producing a work of art is the amount of the performer’s soul that is transfused in the process.”2
