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Archive for June, 2015

Debunking Warren Bennis

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2015

https://www.flickr.com/photos/29233640@N07/13265854343/“There is a profound difference between management and leadership, and both are important. To manage means to bring about, to accomplish, to have charge of or responsibility for, to conduct. Leading is influencing, guiding in a direction, course, action, opinion. The distinction is crucial”  –Warren Bennis

The links below are to a series I did in 2008 refuting Bennis’ thesis.

According  to Bennis

  • The manager administers; the leader innovates.
  • The manager is a copy; the leader is an original.

Link

  • The manager maintains; the leader develops.
  • The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people.

Link

  • The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.
  • The manager accepts reality; the leader investigates it.

Link

  • The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.
  • The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.

Link

  • The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the leader has his or her eye on the horizon.
  • The manager imitates; the leader originates.

Link

  • The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.
  • The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his or her own person.

(How weird; this post is nowhere to be found.)

  • The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.

Link

Think about it; would you work for a boss who exemplified just one side or the other?

Wally Bock said it best on Monday, It’s not about people. It’s about different kinds of work. If you’re responsible for the performance of a group you have to lead and you have to manage and you have to supervise. You don’t get a choice.

As to so-called leadership, remember that real leaders are proclaimed as such by those around them, not by themselves.

Flickr image credit: Robert Couse-Baker

Ducks in a Row: More On Leadership

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2015

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81016120@N05/12991063585

This post is a follow-up to Wally Bock’s leadership critique yesterday — only I wrote it in 2009.

Leader, Manager, Bureaucrat

Frequent readers know that I am not a devotee of Warren Bennis, who famously propagated the idea that leaders and managers are not only different, but that ‘leaders’ are higher on the food chain possessing far more value than the lowly manager.

I have devoted numerous posts to dispelling this attitude, much like Don Quixote tilting at his windmills. (It’s not a new attitude; I’ve had a statue of Quixote and Sancho Panza for years:)

I was discussing this over lunch with several executives and voiced my thought that no manager at any level can function successfully in today’s climate unless they are a leader.

This brought forth a terrific response from one CEO that is well worth sharing.

“A manager who doesn’t lead is a bureaucrat.”

An astute, simple and very accurate statement for people who are, or aspire to be, in charge, no matter of what or at what level, to frame and hang on their walls.

If you don’t want to

  • craft and share a vision of what, why and when {whatever} needs to happen and leave the ‘how’ to your team;
  • share information openly and willingly;
  • take the time to craft communications that can be heard and understood by all;
  • help both your company and your team become all that they can be;
  • shoulder the responsibility, but give away the credit; and
  • think ‘them’ before ‘me’;

then you shouldn’t be in charge.

More on the subject tomorrow, but for more leadership insights today be sure to read the June Leadership Development Carnival.

Flickr image credit: Richard Heyes

Wally Bock (My Hero) on Leadership

Monday, June 1st, 2015

https://www.flickr.com/photos/familymwr/5146608442/Wally Bock is one of the smartest guys I know on the subject of being a boss. I find his approaches on everything to be based in the kind of common sense that is easily recognized as being bang-on.

If I knew Wally better, and he didn’t live on the other coast, I would have kissed him for his post last Friday.

But,  since that isn’t possible, I’m reposting it here — in total gratitude.

Leadership “wisdom” that makes me crazy

May 28, 2015 03:00 pm | Wally Bock

Did you know that there are almost 300 books that Amazon thinks contain “leadership secrets?” Do a Google search for the phrase and you’ll get more than nine million results in about half a second. That makes me crazy.

We’ve studied leaders and leadership for millennia. Is it really possible that there’s a secret out there that we haven’t uncovered? This sounds to me like those “medical breakthroughs” that are announced in infomercials.

Those thoughts started me thinking about other “leadership” things that make me crazy. Here they are in no particular order.

Anyone can lead

Really? In theory maybe, but in real life there are people who don’t want the accountability. Others are pathologically afraid of confrontation. And there are others who won’t make decisions. Anyone can have influence, but not everyone is willing to lead.

Don’t bring me a problem unless you bring a solution.

Oh right! If I see a problem and can’t find a solution you don’t want to know about it? Do you really think it’s better to go on in blissful ignorance until the problem blows up all over you? Besides, problems are often where progress starts.

That stupid bus!

Getting the right people on the bus and then deciding where to go sounds good, until you think about it. First off, most managers don’t get that luxury. They have to achieve the goals they’re given with the people they’ve got. But more fundamentally, how can you know the characteristics of “the right people” until you know where you’re going?

For the record, this might make sense for some start-ups. It did for Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard.

Leaders versus Managers

Argh! I don’t care what Warren Bennis said. It’s not about people. It’s about different kinds of work. If you’re responsible for the performance of a group you have to lead and you have to manage and you have to supervise. You don’t get a choice.

For the record, Peter Drucker never talked about leaders and managers as separate kinds of people, but he did discuss leadership and management.

Flickr image credit: US Army

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