More About Leaders...

My friend and colleague read my blog and sent me another email elaborating on the Harvard Business Review on Leadership:

"Here’s a bit more that struck me from the essay, written by Abraham Zaleznik, Professor of Leadership emeritus at Harvard, called “Managers and Leaders: Are they Different?” Published in the “Harvard Business Review on Leadership” Harvard Business School Press, 1998

“Managers tend to adopt impersonal, if not passive, attitudes towards goals. Managerial goals arise out of necessities rather than desires and, therefore, are deeply embedded in their organization’s history and culture.”

“Leaders adopt a personal and active attitude toward goals. The influence a leader exerts in altering moods, evoking images and expectations, and in establishing specific desires and objectives determines the direction a business takes. The net result of this influence changes the way people think about what is desirable, possible and necessary.”

“Managers relate to people according to the role they place in a sequence of events or in a decision making process, while leaders, who are concerned with ideas, relate in more intuitive and empathetic ways. The distinction is simply between a manager’s attention to how things get done and a leader’s to what the events and decisions mean to participants.”

“One often hears leaders referred to with adjectives rich in emotional content. Leaders attract strong feelings of identity and difference.”

Comments

Katherine E. said…
You are SO in my prayers, mompriest. May your leadership arise from your authentic self, your authentic love of God, and the trust you place in both.
Katherine E. said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
good reflections these last two... ah yes trust... it will come. it is forming already - live into the trust i'd say.... and continue to take deep breaths... long swims... more deep breaths...
Mary Beth said…
MP, these have been very helpful posts for me (as for so many). I have new supervisor at work (a secular organization) and it is a tough transition. According to this post, I am more of a leader and she is more of a manager.

I had NOT expected this of her...my own fault for making assumptions based on things said in interviews and one lunch meeting at a conference this summer.

I have been thinking of it this way: I expected her to be the kind of leader to me that I am to my staff (what is described here) but she is not. Okay, so how do I work with that? Pray through it? :)

Praying for you all the time.
Barbara B. said…
yes, good reflections... keeping you in my prayers as well
Jennifer said…
Thoughtful reflections!
I hope you glean that which works best for you. Sometimes it's a bit of this and a pinch of that. I tend to resist templates, because no congregation or model for leadership is one-size-fits-all.
Blessings to you as you continue your careful discernment!

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