“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” ~Winston Churchill

This post has been sitting in my draft box for quite some time now. Honestly, I find it hard to ‘bounce-back’ coming from almost two weeks of sickness. Work filed up, and tons of commitment needing my immediate attention. Again, I feel the need to rise-up to this occasion and take charge, and I think that is how good business leaders will do. They consider setbacks, failures, and frustrations as allies. These do not discourage them, but rather they rise to the occasion. They put their hands, heads, and hearts to the tasks until they accomplished their objectives. Who would forget Winston Churchill, ‘who brought England to its finest hour’ and put an end to World War 2 with his resiliency when the other nations’ leaders failed to act to stop the Nazis: Never give in –never , never, never, never, never…never give in! Or when he addressed the British people in a BBC radio broadcast (February 1941) and at the same time sending his message to the American political leaders of that time: We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire…Give us the tools and we will finish the job. The rest is history.

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I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.

If you give people tools, [and they use] their natural ability and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected. ~Bill Gates

Inseparability of Leadership and Management

I have always argued that you cannot take leadership apart from business management. While leadership and management are two distinct functions, they are in fact inseparable. A good manager is almost always a good leader, vis a vis a good leader is a good manager.

Many management authors still uphold the separation of the two, or make one a part of the other. Take for example this online article: The Difference Between a Manager and a Leader:

Leadership is just one of the many assets a successful manager must possess. Care must be taken in distinguishing between the two concepts. The main aim of a manager is to maximize the output of the organization through administrative implementation. To achieve this, managers must undertake the following functions: organization, planning, staffing, directing, and controlling. Leadership is just one important component of the directing function. A manager cannot just be a leader; he also needs formal authority to be effective

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“Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers.” — Dee Hock, Founder and CEO Emeritus, Visa

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