Management or leadership

The age old dillema of managment or leadership continues to be a large portion of the current economic issues of business today. Many marginal companies that have not made an issue of the distinction between the two, are the most likely casultiesthat will happen in the short run. The real issue is survival. In order to have tactical and strategic planning that make sense, one must understand the old adage of people manage things, people lead people. A recent publication previewed a concept of firing all the non-performers, no matter the status within a company. Get the hard part done now. It will not get better. When management is applied to strong groups of people, ie sales forces, many times the best that can happen is use corrosive tactics to manipulate people to minimum acceptable results. We then call that 100%. Leadership however, has an entirely different formula. First, hire people that are smarter and better at getting a job done, give them complete training, clear understanding of the requirements, permission to make mistakes, high requirements, high potential rewards, and last bury your ego and get out of the way. Works every time.