Post from Leadership Turn Image credit: lusi

This is the fifth in a series discussing whether Warren Bennis’ 13 differences between leaders and managers still holds in light of today’s modern workforce.

The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the leader has his or her eye on the horizon.

In today’s global workplace managers who concentrate exclusively on bottom lines and forget to look up are likely to trip and fall, just as leaders who don’t keep and eye on the bottom line may find themselves out on their bottoms.

The manager imitates; the leader originates.

What’s the manager imitating? The leader, in order to achieve her vision? How would that work. Can anyone imitate another and still be seen as authentic? If a manager could successfully imitate Steve Jobs, Jeff Immelt or Sam Palmisano wouldn’t that person morph into being a leader—who was also a manger?

What do you think?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 12:15 am and is filed under About Leadership, Entrepreneurship, management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Tags: bottom line, leader, manager, vision, warren bennis
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