Distinguishing Leadership and Management

Here's the cross-post if you want to read in Linked in rather than Medium. These are my thoughts based on my experiences which have translated into my beliefs and behaviors. Writing it down has helped solidify and improve some of my thinking, I found it a valuable experience and I hope you find some value in this as well. Please feel free to post back your thoughts, ideas for improvement, etc. on LinkedIn or Medium.

Something I really appreciate about working at Optum is its investment in the future workforce. A key to that investment is a series of leadership training programs. A few of these programs include interviews with senior leaders throughout the company. I’ve been fortunate to have been interviewed by several participants of these programs and found each experience to be both enjoyable and educational for both of us.

It was during one of these that I was asked to define my distinction between manager and leader. I’ve been a leader and manager for years, I’ve read a lot of books on management and leadership, so this should be easy…but in the moment I found myself challenged to distinguish these intertwining concepts in my own words.

After some consideration I defined it thusly: leaders provide vision and inspiration; managers provide direction and guidance. I further expounded to say not all leaders are managers, and not all managers are leaders, but the best leaders are often managers and the best managers are always leaders.

I could tell my interviewer was disquieted so I quickly constructed an imperfect metaphor but one I will relate herein: imagine the company is a train headed somewhere and we (the employees) are operating the engine and laying the track just before the train arrives. To where is the train going? Look to the leader as she/he stands upon the top of the train and unerringly points to a specific destination on the horizon.

What is the manager doing while the leader points? The manager is ensuring the train continues to run: the engine has fuel, the track is laid before the train rolls over that patch of land, everybody is executing their jobs at the right time and right place, and the manager ensures the leader is aware of potential hazards (like that huge boulder that must be avoided).

Leaders cannot be blind to circumstances and point to the same destination when that is no longer the best option; instead they must know when to abandon one destination for another, and communicate the shift to the organization to educate and inspire others to embrace the altered vision. While leaders direct from their perch, the greater leaders also become the manager who manages the managers to ensure the operation stays on course even when the course changes.

The metaphor isn’t great but the visualization seems to work well enough to distinguish the roles. Unfortunately the metaphor fails to communicate a simple truth: there is not just one leader, there are many leaders.

a leader takes the vision and translates it into something consumable, personal, purposeful

Let’s reconsider the metaphor and look at the crew whose job it is to pour the ballast layer. Placing crushed rock in a pile seems a simplistic task that requires no thought, no leadership. However if it is poured improperly (wrong stone, depth, shape, etc.), the sleepers will not have sufficient support, the rails will flex and become unstable, the soil will weather, eventually the track will fail and require costly repairs before a train crashes. The job to pile rock is vital to achieve the destination, and yet few who work on this will actually care about where the leader is pointing. They need to see why the greater vision (destination) is valuable, how they fit into the vision, why they should have pride in making the best ballast, why and how they are critical to the success of the vision. That doesn’t just happen because it’s all true, it happens because there is a leader that takes the higher vision and translates it into something consumable, personal, purposeful as it relates to each of them. That leader may be the manager directing the crew or it may be a crew member that is fortunate enough to be the bridge between the visions. Leaders are everywhere; tying the visions together across roles/layers is the critical component for organizational success.

Leaders create the vision and passion that fuels the drive.

Managers make the vision real.

Together we have a tour de force.

Go to my Medium page (link at top) to continue the conversation