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Managers who don't lead are quite discouraging, but leaders who don't manage don't know what's going on. It's a phony separation that people are making between the two.

Henry Mintzberg

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Henry Mintzberg
Age: 85
Born: 1939
Born: September 2
Author
Economist
Sociologist
University Teacher
Writer
Montreal
Quebec
People
Manage
Leaders
Lead
Leader
Quite
Phony
Making
Discouraging
Two
Separation
Going
Managers

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Corporations are economic entities, to be sure, but they are also social institutions that must justify their existence by their overall contribution to society.
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If you ask managers what they do, they will most likely tell you that they plan, organise, co-ordinate and control. Then watch what they do. Don't be surprised if you can't relate what you see to those four words.
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Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: its starting point.
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Anecdotal data is not incidental to theory development at all, but an essential part of it.
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Technologies tend to undermine community and encourage individualism.
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What we call a financial crisis is really at its core a crisis of management, and not just a crisis of management, but a crisis of management culture. ...In other words, what you had is a detachment of people who know the business from people who are running the business.
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Never set out to be the best. It's too low a standard. Set out to be good. Do Your best.
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We find that the manager, particularly at senior levels, is overburdened with work. With the increasing complexity of modern organizations and their problems, he is destined to become more so. He is driven to brevity, fragmentation, and superficiality in his tasks, yet he cannot easily delegate them because of the nature of his information.
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Management is, above all, a practice where art, science, and craft meet
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An unsuccessful manager blames failure on his obligations the effective manager turns them to his own advantage. A speech is a chance to lobby...a visit to an important customer a chance to extract trade information.
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Learning is not doing it is reflecting on doing.
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Basically, managing is about influencing action. Managing is about helping organizations and units to get things done, which means action. Sometimes, managers manage actions directly. They fight fires. They manage projects. They negotiate contracts.
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The real challenge in crafting strategy lies in detecting subtle discontinuities that may undermine a business in the future. And for that there is no technique, no program, just a sharp mind in touch with the situation.
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While hard data may inform the intellect, it is largely soft data that generates wisdom.
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