Leaders or Managers
We often differentiate between the concepts of Leadership and Management. One does the right things, copes with change; the other does things right, copes with complexity. Henry Mintzberg, hailed as the world’s premier management thinker, feels that this differentiation between leaders and managers is problematic. In his new book simple called “Managing” he sums up this point by saying, ” leadership cannot simply delegate management; instead of distinguishing managers from leaders, we should be seeing managers as leaders, and leadership as management practiced well.”
In the following video Dr. Mintzberg talks about this concept and also introduces the idea that it is time recognize that managing is neither a science nor a profession; it is a practice, learned primarily through experience, and rooted in context.
The Concept of Practice
In 1983, Donald Schoon, a leading M.I.T. social scientist and consultant published a book called “The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action” in which he introduced concepts such as reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action which explained how professionals meet the challenges of their work with a kind of improvisation that is improved through practice. The best professionals, Donald Schön maintains, know more than they can put into words. To meet the challenges of their work, they rely less on formulas learned in graduate school than on the kind of improvisation learned in practice.
Reflective practice is the ability to reflect on one’s actions so as to engage in a process of continuous learning. According to one definition, it involves “paying critical attention to the practical values and theories which inform everyday actions, by examining practice reflectively and reflexively.
To understand the basic concept of reflective practice please click on this link and watch the video: What is Reflective Practice?
In addition, this video on The Reflective Practitioner may be helpful.
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