Monday, May 23, 2005

Leadership vs Management

Why did I call this Blog Time Leadership and not Time Management?

Leadership is about doing the right things, Management is about doing things right.

Leadership is about having the map and going the right direction (goals). Management is about going there efficiently.

Leadership is about effectiveness. Management is about efficiency.

Leadership comes before Management.

In the 1990s I published an audio tape series on Time Management. Since then, I have come to realize that being efficent has its limits and that working on the right things yeilds more results than straight efficiency.

Of course because my interest in time management and efficiency, many of my postings will also be efficiency tips.

My new job as CEO of SYNNEX Canada after 25 years of running my own business (EMJ Data) has caused me to reevaluate my entire set of systems. EMJ was a business with about 300 employees with sales about $350,000,000. SYNNEX Canada is roughly double that number of staff and triple the sales.

Because I had done EMJ for so many years, I had developed systems to handle volume. These systems were starting to break down at SYNNEX because the volume increased. I found that much of my time was spent traveling and addressing CYA issues. Everyone at SYNNEX was concerned because there was a new boss (me) and the EMJ people were concerned because SYNNEX had bought EMJ. 2-3 weeks could pass and I could see little meaningful progress. Recoginizing this made me realize I needed to work on the right things - rather than just work. One of my greatest strengths is high energy and high work ethic, long hours etc. This can only get me so far if I do not work on the right things.

This blog will be where I share my journey. I will also share a number of my tips and tricks.

3 Comments:

At 9:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like the way you clearly define leadership vs. management.
Laura

 
At 11:02 PM, Blogger steven edward streight said...

I have to tell you my recurring nightmare. I often have this dream that I'm at work in an office, a marketing agency where I actually was employed on two separate occasions, a high tech database marketing pioneer.

Anyway, I'm at my desk, the work is piling up, the CEO keeps walking past my office, and I am in a panic because I cannot seem to get anything done.

It's Sisyphus on sedatives. I cannot even roll the rock up the hill.

Piling up, piling up. Tons of interesting projects, and I'm fully capable of handling the work, but I cannot do anything. It's like I'm paralyzed.

Like in a dream where you are punching someone and not causing any damage, or running fast, but getting nowhere.

But I'm a workaholic. I multi-task. I'm known to be a work horse, someone who can meet deadlines, etc.

So that makes the dream so unreal and bizarre. It's a time manager's worst nightmare, and so I thought I'd share that with you.

I came to your first post to discover the exact date when you started blogging, for your entry in The New PR Wiki list of CEO Bloggers.

;^)

 
At 11:04 PM, Blogger steven edward streight said...

P.S. A wonderful first post here. Love how you define Leader vs. Manager.

Managers (and I'm one myself, a sales manager at a web development firm) are sort of doomed, according to many business books I've read. They must fulfill the vision of the leader, but many just boss and bully and have no guts to make the painful but necessary decisions.

 

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