“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” - George S. Patton

Management…now that’s easy. Setting up rules and processes, making sure things stay within the boundaries that have been prepared is a much more simple job than leadership.  With leadership you have to give people room to achieve the goal their way, even if it means learning from a mistake.  The focus is the goal, not the process.

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker

This is accompanied by the paradox that every leader is sometimes a manager, but every manager isn’t a leader.  Two different strategies, two different skill sets.  Leaders seem to understand that you manage “things,” but you lead people.  The success of the organization is based on leadership and the people, not on processes and rules.

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” - Theodore Roosevelt

Every industry, including ours, needs leadership, and so do the individual media organizations.  The challenge has been in finding any true leaders in an industry to managers.  Even the top corporate leadership are sometimes to focused on today and “the rules” that they aren’t leading.

What about you?  Manager or leader?  Remember, leaders aren’t always the ones in charge, they’re the ones people will follow.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more,  you are a leader.”- John Quincy Adams