Editor’s Note: Management and Leadership

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

Peter Drucker

Effective managers understand the nature of the challenges they face and respond effectively with all the tools at their disposal. They communicate their priorities, mobilize their employees and making the necessary investments for long-term success. For companies like Expeditors International, Expedia, Amazon.com and Inrix, an important element of their success has been the early decision to make strategic investments in information technology that helped them establish an early competitive advantage.

But nothing challenges an executive like steering through the kind of deep recession we have experienced over the past four years. Many leaders have had to make deeply unpopular decisions that included cutting favorite projects, laying off people and shrinking or eliminating pay increases.

It tests you to the core when you end up in an economic crisis like what weve been through, whether you are the head of a nonprofit, a private corporation or the state of Washington, says Governor Christine Gregoire. When I saw how deep the recession was, I asked myself why this happened on my watch. I went through a little of the grieving process. Then I realized that it was time to step up and do what I thought was right. I had to reset, reform state government just like every private-sector company had to do.

Gregoire supported reforms in the states unemployment insurance and pension systems that were unpopular among many of her supporters but resulted in important cost savings to the state. Im a pragmatist, says Gregoire. I believe in problem solving. My experience tells me everybody wants the same goal, they just differ on how to get there. If you can get everyone to focus on the goal, you can find a path of common agreement. I dont believe in process. I believe in outcomes.

Good leaders are also decisive when it comes to doing the right thing. Gregoire says her proudest moment in office was when the marriage equality initiative passed. She remembers how her daughters swayed her to support the initiative in spite of her religious beliefs when they described how marriage equality was to their generation what the civil rights movement was to hers. Watching the new Lincoln movie brought that all right back home, says Gregoire. History will show that Washington state was on the right side as the rest of the country comes to the same realization.

To build a strong economy and protect our quality of life, we need great leaders at every level among Washingtons businesses, nonprofits and government institutions. A panel of expert judges selected an incredible corps of winners for the inaugural Executive Excellence Awards. But Gregoire deserves special recognition for the excellent job she has done guiding the ship of state in one of the most turbulent times in recent history.