Management gurus define efficiency and effectiveness as follow:

Efficiency is doing things right.

Effectiveness is doing the right things.

Which then is more important? Which should we do first? Of course this seems like a no brainer, yet many of us have overlooked this.

Simple answer is we need both. Ideally everyone should be both effective and efficient. But I believe when it comes to team work, it depends. There should be different focus depending on which role we play.

If we are talking about being leaders/ owners, we should first and foremost be EFFECTIVE, i.e. do the right things.

If we are the followers/ staff, our focus should be to be EFFICIENT, i.e. doing the things right.

More inspiring is the fact that while there can be no perfect individual, we can have a “perfect team”. Perfect team made up of imperfect members? Yes indeed.

Efficient leaders + effective staff = 68%

Effective leaders + efficient followers = 98%

Do the RIGHT things RIGHT!