Leader vs. manager 4/7
by Miki SaxonPost from Leadership Turn Image credit: lusi
This is the fourth in a series discussing whether Warren Bennis’ 13 differences between leaders and managers still holds in light of today’s modern workforce.
The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.
If a manager truly focused only on the next few days, weeks, or even months he would have little chance of challenging/developing his people, driving innovation and productivity in the department/group/team, or any of the myriad of things that most managers are responsible for in today’s world. Further, without a decent understanding relative to his position of the company’s long-range plans how can he manage efficiently.
The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
That may be true of a manger who follows blindly, but considering how often rank and file employees at all levels, especially knowledge workers, demand to know why they are doing something as well as why they’re doing it a certain way a manager who doesn’t ask those questions is probably in big trouble.
What do you think?
Your comments—priceless
May 5th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Thank you for allowing my first post to be on your blog. How can one manage in today’s fast pace work environment without possessing the skills to both effectively lead and motivate employees? You reference rank and file employees in your post. Unions are fast becoming dinosaurs and are not common place in most small to medium business environments in existence today. I believe to be a successful manager in today’s new work environment managers must posses the skills to be effective leaders and coaches in team oriented “open door” environments. Young employees entering the work force from High School or College do not possess the same work ethics of baby boomer’s. If managers attempt to train this new work force using the same tactics as we did in the past retention will suffer greatly. It is truly a kinder and gentler world we live in.
Thank you for allowing me to ramble.
Fred
May 5th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
HI Fred, I’m delighted that you chose to “ramble,” you’re welcome to do it any time:) First, using rank and file was my error, I didn’t mean to refer to Unions, but to general employees.
More importantly, you hit the nail on the head in terms of what’s needed, not only for the Millennials, but for all workers.
The world has changed, now we just need to convince all those folks who insist on keeping ‘manager’ and ‘leader’ separate.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Maxi:
You raise some great questions here, especially about the short-range view issue. The trouble is that in most larger companies, especially publicly-held ones, this is exactly the cause of much of the turmoil we see.
In fact, the higher you go in the executive ranks, the more short-viewed most managers are forced to become. The stock market has driven many top execs in publicly-held corporations to focus heavily upon short-term results with little regard to long-term consequences of their tactical decisions. It’s not hard to generate short-term profit numbers, if you are willing to sacrifice your long-term success. With the incentives being paid to CEOs even of losing companies for hitting target stock prices, who can blame them for being short-viewed?
In my new book, “The Alpha Factor” (Westlyn Publishing, 2008), I describe a new model for managing the revenue side of a business that proved itself capable of creating dramatic, sustainable growth in dozens of companies without sacrificing long-term success. The results of my tests with more than 75 companies was overwhelming in proof that almost any company can create both short-term and long-term profit growth without resorting to the short-view tactics being employeed by so many corporate “managers.”
Surprisingly, in my reseasrch I saw far too many companies where the top “leadership” was undermining the strategic initiatives of lower-level staff who had direct product or line responsibility for creating success. I talk a lot more about this issue and some of the answers on my website: http://www.thealphafactor.com
Thanks for bringing this very timely issue to light again.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Miki:
Sorry for the typo on your name. I was typing too fast!
May 7th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Wes, thanks for stopping by and adding your thoughts. I agree totally on the short-term attitudes fostered by Wall Street and it’s good to hear that there is research proving that long-term doesn’t have to be sacrificed to short-term (AKA quarterly) thinking. I would love to have you do a guest post on that subject:)
I still remember how Frederick Reichheld in “Loyalty Rules!” (2001) proved that a 5% improvement in employee retention translated to a 25%-100% gain in earnings and in doing so legitimized corporate culture as a real and valuable thing. Hopefully, your book will do the same for thinking long-term.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Wes, No problem, I’ve been called much worse:)
May 7th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Miki:
I would love to do a guest post on the subject of generating short-term gains while improving long-term success. I have lots of examples of how the revenue side can be managed almost as easily as the cost-side can by understanding the buying decision pyramid.
Just let me know, and we’ll coordinate something.
May 7th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Hear that, folks? Stay tuned for more from Wes!
May 10th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Setting aside the point of whether we call a person a leader or manager, it is the values a person lives out that makes him more or less effective in a role where he is responsible for the activities of others. Bennis’ work over the years has helped identify and describe these differences in compelling clarity. I find it interesting that the positive psychology movement is discovering that these same set of values convey a survival benefit to cultures that embrace them. It seems to me that cultures thrive with these values because they meet human needs for respect, recognition, belonging, personal growth and meaning.
May 11th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Michael:
You are onto the big secret. Not just character, but also caring are critical to successful management AND leadership.
There is a universally-applicable model for how people view and assess opportunities and events. In my research for “The Alpha Factor,” I discovered what I call the decision pyramid. The simple conclusion is that people are attracted to things and opportunities that make them feel good about themselves and about how they believe others see them. (www.thealphsfactor.com)
As a manager, you get far more out of nurturing those needs than through more “traditional” management strategies.
Bravo to you for recognizing that.
May 11th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Michael and Wes, Thank you both for stopping by and adding your thoughts. I agree with you both, but society has chosen separate them and to set leaders above managers, which is what I so vehemently disagree with.
The best managers lead their people from behind, while the best leaders also manage the work.
The best of both do it because that’s who they are, not with expectations of personal fame.