Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

From Computerworld: “CEOs are Faking It”

…The best executives, like Intel Corp.’s former CEO Andy Grove, will admit that they face a dilemma in needing to appear decisive while at the same time being conscious of their limitations. “You have to pretend,” Sutton said. “It’s sort of a dilemma, but if you want to accept a leadership job, you’ve got to accept the hypocrisy of it.”

In a 2003 interview with the Harvard Business School, Grove acknowledged that no business leader has “a real understanding of where we are heading.”

In the interview, Grove added that it is important not to be weighed down by the burden of making important decisions without a clear picture of things. “Try not to get too depressed in the journey, because there’s a professional responsibility. If you are depressed, you can’t motivate your staff,” he said.

The article also notes that a lot of the management and leadership advice out there is bad… Really? I’m shocked, I tell you - shocked! You mean “Chainsaw Al’s” advice might not be the way to run a company?

Obscene paychecks aside (that’s a whole ‘nuther topic) this all comes back to - in my mind - that there is a huge difference between leadership and management. Leaders set the tone, motivate the troops and know that being a leader isn’t a “fair weather” job.