Page 97 - The extraordinary leader

74 • The Extraordinary Leader

is that leadership has to do with change. We have traditionally defined the
manager’s role as preserving the stability of organizations and leaders as instru-
ments of change. But we agree with John Gardner when he wrote:

Many writers on leadership take considerable pains to distinguish between leaders
and managers. In the process leaders generally end up looking like a cross between
Napoleon and the Pied Piper, and managers like unimaginative clods. This
troubles me. I once heard it said of a man, “He’s an utterly first-class manager but
there isn’t a trace of the leader in him.” I am beginning to believe that he does not
exist. Every time I encounter utterly first-class managers they turn out to have quite
a lot of the leader in them. 5

The bigger issue is that all change is not the same. All change is not created
equal.

Tactical Change
For want of better terminology, we describe some change as tactical. For
example:

● A new work process
● A higher sales quota
● Moving into a new facility
● Introducing new technology
● Implementing new payroll procedures
● Changing the employee benefit plan
● Introducing a new training initiative
● Revising the compensation plan
● Hiring from the outside to fill positions requiring unique new skills
● Changing the firm’s organization structure

Tactical change includes a sales manager implementing new reporting pro-
cedures to track sales activity better; or a customer-service manager imple-
menting a series of meetings to better inform a group who will be responsible
for the implementation of new processes for tracking customer requests and
complaints.