Quote: Leadership vs management
27 June 2008
One Comment
Ross Perot is 78 years old today. He is a successful businessman (founder of both Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems), one of the wealthiest people in America, and a former presidential candidate (1992 and 1996).
“Lead and inspire people. Don’t try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be led.”
Ross Perot (b. 6.27.1930)
The irony here is that neither Perot Systems nor EDS embraces the values expressed here in actual business practice. As an independent contractor, I delivered training workshops for years as part of Perot Systems’ highest level Business Leaders Development program, both here and in Europe. Sadly, the six-month process focused almost exclusively on management tools with virtually no time spent on people skills. I told my contacts on numerous occasions that we were not teaching leadership and, although they agreed with that, along with the suggestion that the students were hungry for leadership development, nothing ever changed.Senior management, most of which showed very poor leadership skills, sent their underlings to training. They did not do any themselves. They were leaders in title, but managers in practice. The program was eventually killed, by the way.
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