There are lots of definitions that compare and contrast leadership and management. Both are extremely important skills for people in our positions. I think of management as the planning and oversight of resources used to accomplish a task. Resources can be people, money, tools, time, etc. Management is more science than art. We build work breakdown structures, we assign tasks, we allocate money. We can improve our management skills by learning the best practices of the resources we manage. I strongly encourage you to do so. Our resources are precious. Our talented staff, the money NYU entrusts to us, and our time are all resources that we must strive to leverage as much as we can.
The difference between a mediocre organization and a great one is leadership. To me, leadership is all about people. My personal definition is inspiring a group of people to accomplish a common goal. Whether it is in business, military, or athletics a team should be greater than the sum of its individual members. This requires developing, and empowering them. This will result in more mistakes. We can’t learn without mistakes. A great organization learns from its mistakes and grows better. As the team members grow they understand more, see more opportunities, and achieve much more. NYU depends on us to be the best leaders we can be.
To me, good leadership is an ethical imperative. Working for a leader who cares about you, develops and empowers you, is a great experience. Working for a leader who controls everything, assigns blame in every case, and doesn’t care about you is stressful, harms your health, and also probably impacts your family. If I think about what I am proudest of over my career this one incident stands out. About six weeks after I had taken over leadership of a team from a toxic leader, one of my team members told me about something his daughter said. She was about six years old, and as he was putting her to bed she said, “I like it better now Daddy, you’re happy.” He hadn’t realized the impact his stress was having on his family.
This doesn’t mean that we don’t hold people accountable, or that we don’t discipline them when necessary. We must be fair to everyone on our team. What I ask of you is that you continue to try to be a better leader. We don’t have to be perfect, but I want to be part of a team that’s always headed in the right direction.