Leadership Versus Management: What’s the Difference?

Hi, everyone. This is Wayne Rivers at FBI, where We Build Better Contractors.

We've got a Raleigh Boot Camp coming up in April, so contact Charlotte and get your high potential people enrolled as
soon as you can. The seats fill up fast, so don't dally about. Okay. This week, I want to talk about leadership versus
management, what's the difference. They seem like interchangeable terms, but they're really not. I'm drawing from Arlin
Sorenson, again, as Dennis and I so frequently do. He's got a great graphic, which we'll link to here about the difference
between leadership and management. We'll have a link for you below.

Management and leadership overlap. As you'll see in this graphic, they both seek to do some things, and they work hand
in glove to do so. Accomplishing goals, hitting targets, aligning to mission, vision and values, inspiring teams, mobilizing
resources. That's part of leadership and it's part of management. But beyond that, they're pretty darn different. Several
years ago, we had a prospective hire come in, and we were interviewing her in the conference room. She looked at me
and she said, "What's your leadership style?"

Nobody had ever asked me that before, and I hadn't thought about it. I hadn't thought about it at all. I don't know what I
did. I may have completely... I may have blushed. I don't know what I did. I had no answer. Thank goodness, John Mayes
was there, and he kind of answered the question for her, but he had to come up with something pretty quick. If he asked
me now what my leadership style was, I would go to our mission, vision, and values, and I would talk about especially our
values that I think is the most important piece of any company's MVV, your values. That's how you treat each other at
work and in your shared mission.

Let's talk about the differences between leadership and management a little bit. I'm going to compare and contrast here.
Leaders set vision and strategy. Managers set policies and priorities and enforce those policies. Leaders create value.
Managers quantify value. You see the difference? Leaders have followers, managers have subordinates or direct reports.
Now, we're going to be doing a book review soon that talks about the leader-follower model and tries to turn that on its
head and come up with, get this, a leader-leader model, which is even better. We'll have that coming up for you soon.

Leaders lead people, managers manage things and manage tasks. Mike talks about in Boot Camp all the time, you lead
people, you manage things and tasks. Leaders seek positive changes, and they take calculated risks. Managers manage
risks, and they seek stability. They seek to avoid risk. Leaders appeal to the heart, managers appeal to the head. Makes
sense? Leaders set direction, managers plan details. Leaders ask questions, managers give answers and directions. Big
difference. Now, here's a list on one side leadership. Here's a list on the other side management. Is it that simple? Is it that
black and white? No, it never is. But I think it's important to understand that leadership is quite different from
management.

I had to put together, Travelers bought the company seven years ago, and I had to have a job description. I don't think I'd
ever had one before, at least not at FBI. My job description, I had to help write it and submit it, and then HR perfected it
and all that stuff. But manages the vision and strategy of FBI, manages the P&L and cash. Okay, leaders do that. Ensures
the business strategy and activities are in alignment with company values. Develop and execute strategies to achieve
goals. Responsible for hiring, coaching, and mentoring.

You may say that's a management role. That's okay. I think leaders, senior leaders, CEOs, senior VPs, et cetera, I think
those people need to be intimately involved in hiring. Nobody knows the company better than you. Nobody knows your
company inside out. Nobody knows your values better than you, whether you've written them down or not. I think senior
leaders need to be intimately involved in hiring to make sure that not only are you getting the people with the right
technical skills, you're getting people with the right mindset. I'd rather have people with the right mindset and teach them
the technical skills than the other way around. I think it's much, much easier to do. Own quality assurance and net
promoter score. Customer satisfaction, that's a leader's role. Lead organizational and process improvements.

You see, the job description that I put together was one for leaders, not managers. If I was a manager of people or a
manager of a department, it would sound very differently. I'd like to hear what you think. What do you see as the key
differences between leadership on the one hand, management on the other, and where do you see them overlapping?
Where do you see them doing the same things you might say? Love to hear from you in the comments.

This is Wayne Rivers at FBI, where We Build Better Contractors.