Defining Leadership Versus Management
Donald Cooper (I recommend his weekly blog most enthusiastically) wrote: “No one in an organization is only a leader or only a manager.” He’s right. We all do some of both. But the line is a bit nebulous… How do we know when we’re executing leadership behaviors versus management ones? And how much time and effort should we devote to one or the other?
Please tune in this week as Wayne walks you through Cooper’s definitions for both leadership and management and explores, according to a reputable consulting organization, where leaders actually spend their mental time and attention. What’s your reaction? What did Wayne leave out? Please share your comments with us at [email protected].
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WAYNE RIVERS: Hi, everyone. This is Wayne Rivers at Performance Construction Advisors where We Build Better Contractors.
This week, I want to talk about potentially defining leadership versus management. I think we've tackled this before. This one comes from my friend Donald Cooper's blog and Arlin reposted it. Donald does a weekly blog. I recommend that you look it up and subscribe. Really quite enlightening. He's quite a gifted businessman. He says that no one in an organization is only a leader or only a manager. And he's right. I think you sort of, without a lot of clear dividing lines, maybe slip between managing a little bit over here and leading a little bit over there. It's sort of nebulous how it all works.
He says in many small businesses, the leader-manager is also the hands-on doer of lots of things. And that's what we're trying to educate our members about is if they're going to be leaders and managers, they've got to stop a lot of the things they do in their organizations. They've got to free up their head space and their time, their calendars in order to be able to devote that time to higher order things like leadership.
Now, what about this is important to you? Well, we're all trying to get to that point where we're working optimally at our highest and best use. And one of the ways to do that is to define leadership relative to management so you'll know when you're slipping into one role or the other. And ideally, for those of you who are senior leaders in your organizations, you want to be spending a lot more time on leadership and a lot less time on doing things, number one, but managing tasks, number two. And I think maybe that's the key thing: you lead people, you manage tasks. So that's maybe the key differentiator if you're going to simplify it to that degree.
All right, now according to Donald, what do leaders do? They provide vision, number one. They provide vision, "Where are we going to be in five years, 10 years, 30 years from now?" They tend to strategy. They build out the culture of their businesses. And I think this all goes back to mission, vision and values. And I start with values. I think values are the fundamental piece of any organization. And once you understand what your values are, then you can get into your mission and your vision. And having a mission, vision, values, culture, that all provides meaning and purpose to people who work in your organization. You say, "Oh, Wayne, that's a bunch of consultant stuff. It doesn't really make a difference." It absolutely makes a difference in organizations. Leaders drive revenue. They acquire talent and develop talent along the way and they allow people to feel seen and valued in the organization.
And we do it through appreciations. You can do it, I suppose, in many different ways, but making sure that the people in the organization know that they're valued, their contributions mean something and they're not just another number or something like that. What then is management? Well, according to Donald, management provides accountability. They execute the tactics from the bigger strategy that the leaders create. They coach, train and develop people. They develop systems and processes. They make sure everyone knows RRA - role, responsibility and accountability. And managers also appreciate people, but they appreciate people while holding them accountable at the same time. So it's sort of a tricky balancing act there, but that's what managers do. So hopefully that sets a little bit of a divide between leadership and management and it helps you understand.
I'm going to share a graphic with you, and this is called Facets of Leadership and we got it from Gap International for a presentation I was making way back when.
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This is what it looks like. But Gap International did studies and they found that this is where the best leaders, this is how they allocate their time in their organization. 26% they categorize as purposeful. That means they're focusing on their legacy and their impact, "How can I make highest and best use?" as I said before, "How can I make the biggest impact in the organization?" 23% on other people, care, connection, love and collaboration. So nurturing the people in the organization. 10% on positivity. You might think that leaders would be 40% positivity, sort of blindly happy-go-lucky people always seeing an optimistic, rosy future, but that's not always the case.
I think that the best leaders bring positivity, but they also bring reality to people. 9% on maximizing the possibilities, 9% on growth and evolution, risk-taking, curiosity, improving the quality of the thinking and learning in the organization, and only 8% on themselves. You would think that leaders would be spending a lot of time thinking about themselves, especially when it comes to legacy. But here, what Gap International is talking about is self-awareness and integrity. That's what leaders are focusing on when they're thinking about themselves. 8% of experiencing life, having joy and happiness in life. And then 7% and get it done, persistence, follow-through and hard work. Now, if you're going to think about managers, this is leadership brain space. If you're going to think about managers, it might be the inverse. It might be backwards. So managers, you would start with persistence, follow-through, and hard work, and you'd work your way back through the other facets of the leadership mind.
What do you think? Email us at [email protected]. Let me know your thoughts on Donald's definition of leadership versus management and let's hear from you. This is Wayne Rivers at PCA where We Build Better Contractors.
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