“Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing. Both roles are crucial, and they differ profoundly. I often observe people in top positions doing the wrong things well.”

—  Warren Bennis

Bennis Warren and Burt Nanus (1985) Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge. Harper and Row. p. 21
1980s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing. Both roles are crucial, and they…" by Warren Bennis?
Warren Bennis photo
Warren Bennis 11
American leadership expert 1925–2014

Related quotes

Milton Friedman photo

“The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

About changing congress http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac9j15eig_w (c. 1977)
Context: It's nice to elect the right people, but that isn't the way you solve things. The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.

Stephen King photo

“People who try hard to do the right thing always seem mad.”

Stephen King book The Stand

Source: The Stand

Peter F. Drucker photo

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

Peter F. Drucker book The Essential Drucker

Misattributed
Variant: Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing.
Source: The Essential Drucker

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

Warren Bennis (1925–2014) American leadership expert

Peter Drucker, and Warren Bennis, as quoted in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (1989) by Stephen R. Covey, p. 101
1980s

Stephen R. Covey photo

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

Stephen R. Covey book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Peter Drucker, and Warren Bennis, as quoted by Covey, in The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People (1989), this has sometimes become misattributed to him.
Misattributed

John D. Rockefeller photo

“Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.”

John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) American business magnate and philanthropist

As quoted in The Forbes Book of Business Quotations (2007) edited by Ted Goodman, p. 175

Jodi Picoult photo

“I wonder if what makes a family a family isn't doing everything right all the time but, instead, giving a second chance to the people you love who do things wrong.”

Jodi Picoult book Lone Wolf

Source: Lone Wolf

Kapil Dev photo

“I don’t tell myself I am a hero. People do look up to performers and think of them as heroes…Hero worship in India is too big. It is both right and wrong. It is fair to respect people who have done things that others haven’t but it is not right to traet them as gods.”

Kapil Dev (1959) Indian cricketer

Quoted in [Datta Bandegiri,Asavari Fadanis & Aparna Atre, Paper solution English Reader(L.L.) Std.X, http://books.google.com/books?id=iBg8W5l2DlUC&pg=PA87, Jeevandeep Prakashan Pvt Ltd, 87–, GGKEY:C8230HKTBTZ, 87]

Donald Ervin Knuth photo

“Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration.”

Donald Ervin Knuth (1938) American computer scientist

Knuth versus Email http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html

Russell L. Ackoff photo

“Managers cannot learn from doing things right, only from doing them wrong”

Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) Scientist

Source: 2000s, A little book of f-laws: 13 common sins of management, 2006, p. 37 cited in: Andrew Carey (2008) Inside Project Red Stripe: Incubating Innovation and Teamwork at the Economist. p. 49.

Related topics