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Management is Doing Things Right, Leadership is Doing the Right Things

1 August 2007 6 Comments

In A Simple Statement: A Guide to Nonprofit Arts Management and Leadership, Jamie Grady writes:

As Peter Drucker once proclained, management is doing things right — improving operational performance, maximizing revenues, and reducing expenses while increasing artistic production values and audience appreciation. Leadership is doing the right things — setting organizational priorities and allocating human and fiscal resources to fullfill the organization’s vision.

I like this simple distinction between leading and managing.

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6 Comments »

  • Mikael Kristiansen said:

    Do you happen to know the source of this great Peter Drucker quote? Everybody is quoting it, but I am having trouble finding out where Drucker wrote it. Some people also ascribe the quote to Warren Bennis. I’m puzzled. Hope you can help me out.

    # 30 June 2009 at 11:06 am
  • JD (author) said:

    @ Mikael

    Search on Google Books to see references and sources.

    # 30 June 2009 at 1:51 pm
  • Sovute said:

    The quote is derived from the following source (because the author is too lazy to cite it):

    Drucker, Peter F. The Practice of Mangement. Oxford: Elsevier Ltd., 1955. Print.

    # 9 December 2009 at 10:10 am
  • JD (author) said:

    @ Sovute

    Thanks for stopping by and for your help with the cite. Drucker is a wealth of insight.

    # 10 December 2009 at 4:58 am
  • Andrew said:

    its about time someone sourced the quote. However im quite sure this is actually a Warren Bennis quote. Unfortuately i dont have the source to confirms this but uni advisors say its so.

    # 31 August 2010 at 3:10 am
  • JD (author) said:

    @ Andrew — Warren Bennis is a smarty with a lot of gems so I wouldn’t be surprised. At the end of the day, all paths lead to the same town, so I think there are several variations, authors, and sources that express the same concept.

    # 31 August 2010 at 11:49 pm

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