All managers are leaders
March 5, 2009 · Print this post
The Wall Street Journal reported recently that more companies are recognizing the need to continue investing in developing and deepening leadership skills even in hard times.
That’s great, but the news is not all rosy. It’s a hard time for training in general — a hard time for business in general — and it infuriates me to see so much short-term thinking coming out of the back rooms and board rooms of companies whose decisions affect so many human lives. Bob Sutton makes a case for why knee-jerk layoffs are stupid response to economic woe (and I encourage any companies who are considering layoffs to pony up for the Harvard Business Review case study/commentary “The Layoff”). Layoffs are the most egregious kind of panic response, but it’s equally frustrating to see companies emphasizing “leadership” training for “senior” people.
Please. The people who most need whatever skills and tools we can give them are the people on the front lines of business everywhere — people who are making things, building things, fixing things, transporting goods, getting services out, getting payments in, putting groceries on the shelves and checking them out at the register. People who are doing the daily work of business. Yes, strategy and innovation are important, and they may save your company down the road, but today the people who are doing the work need all of us to be the best managers we can be.
All managers are leaders.
Training executives and senior managers at the expense of front-line managers and supervisors is dumb. Because productivity and effectiveness start at the local level — with the individual team. If that team’s manager is ineffective at communicating clearly, providing resources, sharing information, making decisions, managing conflicting priorities and keeping people focused, then it doesn’t matter that the vice president of the division is a great leader. It just doesn’t.
My bias is obvious, of course — my program is all about training managers. But I am not frustrated today because the Wall Street Journal implies that such programs can’t make money right now. I’m frustrated because companies don’t seem to understand that so-called “soft skills” — communicating clearly with co-workers, running effective meetings, agreeing on process — are what keep work flowing through their organizations. Real leadership would be doing whatever it takes to keep that pipeline as wide open as possible.
I believe that things will get better. American business, the business culture I know best, has a long history of being both ingenious and stubborn. We haven’t always been flexible, but we’re learning — we have to. And those much-derided soft skills are at the heart of the flexibility that will save us.
I love what you wrote here, Kelley. It reminds me of a quote from Paul Hawkins in his book “Growing a Business” where he remembers farm work and related that to business leadership: “You can manage a feed lot- you can’t ‘manage’ people. You ‘work with’ people. Stop managing and start listening to, working with, and helping the people at your company.”
That’s not a direct quote- that’s a feeble paraphrase of what I remember. And it’s true. I was on the line with a rep from Qwest who just didn’t know how to listen, or take initiative with me, and as a result, no matter how good their executive leadership is, I’ve come away as an extremely frustrated customer who is contemplating leaving their service and using a competitor despite the cost and difficulty.
Thanks for bringing this up.
All managers are leaders but not all leaders are managers. discuss this as to a layman
Philip, I think that all leaders are managers. Many people make a strong distinction between these roles and talk about them as if they have different skills. I don’t. I think that to be effective, people who are in charge of other people, and who are accountable for results at any level, are functioning every day as both leaders and managers.
Leaders don’t lead ideas or businesses or movements, they lead people. And when there are people involved in a common effort, management skills are essential to the success of that effort. Whether she’s a CEO growing a company or a mailroom manager bringing in a new postage machine, the leader is managing — because she is responsible for creating the culture and expectations (managing) that will allow people to engage with, and successfully execute, her policies, goals and vision (leadership).
For example: President Obama is leading the US, and managing his administration. He is creating a culture within which his Cabinet, staff and advisers can best accomplish the work that he thinks needs to be done. He’s not creating that culture by simply wandering around having a vision — he’s doing it through the management skills of clear roles and responsibilities, clear expectations, clear communication, and good process.
That’s what I think about it. What do you think?
all managers are leaders but not all leaders are managers. discuss.
I just did. And given the similarity of these comments, perhaps I’ve just been unwittingly roped into doing someone’s homework: in which case, you should know that unless you learn to do your own work in this way, you won’t be much good to people as either a manager or a leader.
I am an I/O Psychology grad student. The reason I began this career goal is because I have spent years in the business industry in FL watching as management discounts and ignores the importance of the human element in the workplace, and feeling as though all the hard work in the world means nothing to short-sighted leaders. They also don’t give credence to the fact that without those humans, their business does not and cannot exist. Unless management celebrates their worker-bees and acknowledges their contribution to the work effort, they will rarely be successful. Even if their bottom line prospers, the turnover of unhappy, unappreciated employees costs money and time. A little appreciation goes a long way, and in these days of budget cuts and reorganizations, keeping good staff is tantamount to smart business practices.
Kelley has raised a great point of debate which could equally be translated to MANAGEMENT IS LEADERSHIP, AND LEADERSHIP IS MANAGEMENT? Are all leaders managers and are all managers leaders? Who is more inportant to a company’s productivity? Organisations and executives are constantly faced by this dilemma at various stages in their existence: to give priority to the STRATEGIC remit of the business LEADERSHIP or the EXECUTIVE remit of the MANAGEMENT. Often there are conflicts in organisations’ structure as to how emphasis should be laid, whereas both are very much required.
The sysyem to balance this is a new executive mode called LEADAGEMENT, a systematic, synergetic and symphonic integration or hybridisation of both LEADERSHIP and MANAGEMENT systems. It is addressed fully in the new book:
WHY MANAGERS CAN’T LEAD AND LEADERS CAN’T MANAGE by Dr BISIKAY (www.lulu.com / amazon.com)