Doing The Right Thing, And Doing It Right

University president and "management guru" Warren Bennis spent several years researching a book on leadership.  He traveled around the country spending time with ninety of the most effective and successful leaders in the nation--sixty from corporations and thirty from the public sector.  His goal was to find these leaders' common traits.  At first, he had trouble pinpointing any common traits, for the leaders were more diverse than he had expected.

But he later wrote: "I was finally able to come to some conclusions, of which perhaps the most important is the distinction between leaders and managers: Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.  Both roles are crucial, but they differ profoundly.  I often observe people in top positions doing the wrong thing well."

The same can be said for most people.

- Warren Bennis, Why Leaders Can't Lead (Jossey-Bass, Inc., 1989)