The Leadership Japan Series By Dale Carnegie Training Japan

Managing Or Leading - Which One Are You Doing??   Last week I was teaching a leadership programme for new leaders and this key question of what is the difference between leading and managing came up quite a bit.  They are not the same thing.  Also, most of those so called “leaders” are only managing and not doing much leading. In Japan, we promote people into leadership roles running sections and don’t give them any training.  They continue with this pattern throughout their career, rising, ever rising, but never doing much leading on the way up.   Managers are the Swiss watch mechanics.  All the little interlocking wheels must be properly aligned, integrated, running in a well oiled fashion, not suffering from breakdowns or disruptions. The point is efficiency of process, in both design and execution.  It does require adroitness to create work arounds, when things lurch out of control or to apply first aid solutions to an open wound in the system.  A mastery of logistics and detail makes the job much easier.