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26 SMT Magazine • October 2016 group. They define department tasks and cost estimates to marketing for proposals and quotes. 2. Leadership has historically manifested it- self as an employee characteristic rather than a job category. Traditionally, there has not been a position in an organization called leader. Some- times personnel are assigned the role of team leaders, usually in the context of a project that has had a team formed from recruiting peo- ple from assorted departments with the need- ed skill sets. However, dubbing a collection of people who have been matrixed in from differ- ent departments a team does not in itself make a true team. In the same way crowning an indi- vidual team leader does not guarantee he or she will exhibit leadership skills. Anyone who has been part of a well-functioning team knows that the team output is always much greater than would be the sum of each member's output if they worked as individuals—that's the magic of teams. True leaders within an organization challenge the status quo. They rock the boat. If it's not broke they break it. We have traditional- ly looked to company managers for leadership. 3. At the project or product management level, leaders are forward thinkers trying to an- ticipate potential storm clouds and develop contingency plans, proactively. Their passion for excellence, and their unselfishness, high character and virtue attract others to act in the same way. Having a project manager with these leadership qualities is a big advantage. These attributes do not come naturally. We'll discuss training the workforce in the next issue. One of the best treatments of this subject has been done by John Kotter, the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at the Harvard Business School [3] . At this risk of oversimplifying his ground- breaking work on the difference between man- agement and leadership, Dr. Kotter concludes that companies that have been successful over the long term are found to have a good blend of both—leaders and managers. The Hidden Responsibility of Many Managers Another responsibility of managers not of- ten spoken about or found in a manager's job description is their role in transitioning stu- dents into the real world. This is certainly true in the business of high-tech electronic product assembly. The academic organizational struc- ture is just very different than the for-profit company business model. It is recognized that students have a learn- ing curve to go up once they are employed in the real world. That learning curve consists of acquiring the technical skills to fill the gaps in their academic preparation, as well as attaining the needed soft skills such as working in teams and conflict resolution. Management of entry-level personnel are important players in this often overlooked role. Try to remember your first real world job and the important influence your first manager had on your professional development. Consider this: What is the metric used to determine a student's success? It's their grade point average. How does a student achieve a high GPA? By successfully competing as an in- dividual against her fellow students in the class- room. They do this as individuals for some six- teen years, striving above all to get high marks on the tests they take. Then, they leave academia and enter the real world and are asked to be team players! Educating in a real world environment by using a for-profit EMS business as the classroom as suggested in last month's column [4] would eliminate the need for managers to provide this shepherding and remedial skill role. I remember the early days of SMT. If I was composing a video essay at this point ethereal DO THE HIGH PAID MANAGERS IN YOUR ORGANIZATION ADD VALUE? " True leaders within an organization challenge the status quo. They rock the boat. If it's not broke they break it. "