What does this question mean to you? Are you wondering, “Am I a champion or a drone?” For some strange reason, leaders are seen as the good guys and managers as the bad guys. We see leaders as inspirational and people-oriented. Managers are seen as controlling and task-focused. It is often said that you can lead people but only manage things. I think this is a bug. It’s time to bring management back from the dead.
Some writers have made a valiant attempt to differentiate leadership from management. There is the Warren Bennis family line that managers get things right; leaders do the right things. Harvard scholar John Kotter made an even greater attempt to define the two functions. Kotter managers take care of business today, keeping things running. Leaders, from this point of view, promote and manage change.
This is a step in the right direction, but Kotter muddied the waters by saying that leaders inspire while managers focus on planning, organizing and controlling to get the job done. This move has the unfortunate effect of cornering leaders (and managers, too). Any definition that revolves around personality type or influencing style is doomed to fail because there will always be exceptions: the leader who moves people with quiet determination and a sense of purpose, the leader who cites hard facts or evidence to do things a certain way. . The list of style variations is endless.
There has to be a better way. It seems to me that leadership can be defined simply as the successful promotion of new directions, while management focuses on getting things done, executing those directions. The key change is to say that influencing style has nothing to do with how we define the two functions. This means that both of you can be inspiring as needed. A leader promoting a new product to opportunists may find that such followers jump on the bandwagon with little persuasion required. To show leadership in this context, you don’t have to be inspirational. In contrast, a manager whose team is behind on a major project has to inspire them to work harder. So, an inspiring leader moves us to change course; an inspiring manager moves us to try harder to do our jobs.
But setting aside personality and influencing style has important implications for how we view management. First of all, the style is situational, which means you should use whatever influence tactic works with your target population. Second, managers can now be seen as supporting, inspiring, empowering, and nurturing. Previously, we reserved these features for leaders. While management’s primary focus is on efficiency, that doesn’t mean assembly line nonsense in today’s world. Modern managers are more like coaches, facilitators, or catalysts than assembly line controllers.
But why do we really need two functions? Because the increasing complexity demands greater specialization, therefore a greater variety of roles is required. This is not to say that you can’t do both equally well.
Also, organizations are very heavy in terms of owning the hard work of finding new ways to beat competitors. The leadership needs to be separated from the position so that
Everyone can show leadership, so all employees can be leaders by championing new or improved products, services, and processes. This includes front-line employees who are not managing anyone. Both leadership and management are functions, but only management is a role. That is, you must be appointed to a managerial position, but anyone can show leadership, regardless of whether they are a manager or not. This has a liberating effect, making it clear how front-line employees who don’t manage people can show leadership from the bottom up. This is crucial in any business that needs everyone to think in order to beat the competition. When I say anyone can be a leader, I don’t mean that everyone necessarily has what it takes to manage a small team, let alone rise to the top. By my definition, showing leadership simply means convincing people to do something different, regardless of their position.
The bottom line: managers are just as important as leaders. The old mantra of replacing managers with leaders was a mistake. We need to change the way we look at management, not throw it away.
