As part of my blog reanimation, I popped over to Bas de Baar’s “Project Shrink” blog for a few ideas. Lo and behold, Bas had a brief post (w/ Crossderry link) and a video clip with his take on the difference between project management and project leadership.
Bas opposes “dependence vs. independence” to capture the difference between management and leadership. There is a great insight in that distinction, because it brings the concept of entrepreneurship to the project world (where it is sorely lacking, IMO). Al Gore’s policy entrepreneurship on the environment — notwithstanding the many issues I have with Gore’s substantive case — makes a great leadership contrast to Bas’s Ag Department bureaucrat.
As Bas closed the clip, he mentioned that “we need both [management and leadership]”. This aside gets to the crux of the matter, IMO. We need to have some combination of manager/leader.
Bas’s policy-focused metaphors of bureaucrat vs. entrepreneur also brought to mind the concept of ordered liberty: “freedom limited by the need for order in society. ” That phrase neatly captures the paradox of vision versus/and plan.
Filed under: PMO | Tagged: Al Gore, entrepreneur, Leadership, management, manager vs. leader, Project Management | 1 Comment »
