Execution Sets the Stage for Leadership

An advertisement for the Jack Welch Leadership Institute at for-profit Strayer University appears in several airports in the USA, saying "arrive a manager and depart a leader." What the ad text plays on is the notion that management is somehow pedestrian and ordinary. Leadership, on the other hand, is prized, sought after and valuable. We hear something similar in our search work for independent schools: board members, administrators, teachers and parents want a leader, someone with vision, someone who can inspire confidence and enthusiasm.

This may sell management short, if what people (and Welch) mean by the distinction is something along Peter Drucker's often-quoted lines, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Execution - another word for doing things right - is the Achilles' heel of many a would-be leader. Getting the school to run right is important in the here and now. Moreover, executing well now is a precondition for getting people to align with a vision for later on.