There is no leadership: only effective management - Lessons from Lee’s Perfect Battle, Xenophon’s Cyrus the Great and the practice of the best managers in the world

In this book we go through his masterfully researched description of the battle of Chancellorsville, one of the most critical battles during the American Civil War, while in his past recently launched book “Shakespeare, Henry V and the Lessons for Management”, Vasconcellos e Sá developed
his thoughts using the battle of Agincourt (1415, a battle of the 100 Years War), one that put France and England facing each other.

The interesting fact is that both battles portray similar starting situations, where an overwhelmingly stronger opponent, loses the battle to a significantly “weaker” enemy, in both cases for Darwinian reasons (it’s never the mightiest and the bigger of the “species” who survive, but the most swift and flexible adapting to a changing environment), as well as for a huge amount of mistakes that can be easily compared to the ones being made today in the business environment by failed companies.

“So, what is the difference between a Leader (who sets goals, organizes, uplifts and motivates people, and controls their performance), and a Manager? None. A leader must manage, and a manager has to lead. They are one and the same thing”.