Great Manager, Poor Leader?

“Morgan Stanley ousted Zoe Cruz, its co-president and heir apparent, yesterday after the firm suffered more than $3.7 billion in mortgage-related paper losses.

“The departure of Ms. Cruz, one of the highest-ranking women on Wall Street, was a surprise. While Ms. Cruz, 52 years old, had oversight of the part of the business that had suffered losses, it appeared she had survived the bloodletting brought upon by the credit crisis.

“Apparently, Ms. Cruz suffered not only from the mortgage losses but from criticism of her leadership style, which many colleagues said could be difficult, and from lingering wounds from a bruising 2005 battle for control of the firm. During that struggle, she played a polarizing role, remaining loyal to Philip Purcell, an unpopular chief executive who later was ousted. John Mack, who succeeded Mr. Purcell, stood by Ms. Cruz, but the trading losses gave him a reason to question her leadership...

“Her ascent after Mr. Mack was installed as CEO was remarkable, given the polarizing role she played in 2005…

“She was so unpopular with a number of high-profile Morgan exiles that they refused to return after Mr. Mack became CEO if she remained co-president. They included Vikram Pandit, now a candidate to lead Citigroup Inc., and star banker Joseph Perella.

“Mr. Mack, a longtime supporter of Ms. Cruz in his early days at Morgan Stanley, said he didn't want to put the firm through more trauma. While he praised her for recent positive results, he was unsure she was the right person to continue leading the firm, people familiar with the matter said, partly because some people found her hard to get along with.”

(“Subprime Sword Claims Morgan Stanley's Cruz; Heir Apparent Joins List of Wall Street Casualties; Was Polarizing Style a Factor in Her Ouster?” Randall Smith and Ann Davis. Wall Street Journal: November 30, 2007. pg. C.1)

THE WORK OF A MANAGER is the task. The work of a leader is their people. Managers work on the task through people, while leaders work on their people in the context of the task.