Enough about leadership already, what about management?

It is true, I have written a lot about leadership. It's quite an interesting topic, close to my heart and on which a lot can be said. But can any organisation truly exist - let alone thrive - solely with leaders on-board? Of course not. There are some leaders, ideally very few, and doers, potentially a lot. How do they communicate? Very badly. Doers rely on clear and precise guidance while leaders think bib picture. Yes, leaders can motivate, empower, boost moral and productivity, but that still remains quite high level. What do they actually demand of staff? How do they know whether it is done?

The case for middle management remains strong.

Managers translate, interpret, control, stabilise and correct. Without these, leaders can only fail.

Translation

Strategic thinking is useful to get from vision to some form of implementation plan. But it stops there. To make it all happen, the very high level plan that forms the strategy must be understood by those who will be doing the work. What is needed where, when, by whom, and who is going to do for what price? Answers to these don't really come from leaders.

Managers know how to read a strategy and can translate them into workable and operational commands. The managers create plans for their team to follow. +

Interpretation

Translation is more an one off activity whereas interpretation tends to be contemporaneous. In this sense. managers keep a constant dialogue upwards and downwards. They can bring to the leadership the issues, concerns and ideas of the workforce and likewise explain to the latter the decisions taken by leaders and other managers.

These flow of communication are crucial in any organisation and it is down to proper management to keep them going.

Control

If you are a leader, used (and able) to navigate strategic thinking; if you are a person of vision and long term planning; then without any doubts you get very bored when it comes down to the daily mundane routine of monitoring progress and checking all is going well.

Once again, managers come to your rescue. Monitoring progress on a plan, reporting metrics, PIs, KPIs and so forth, escalating what is causing problems and reacting to any issues in order to maintain delivery, all of this requires skills and experience. The managers will create and implement the adequate controls that ordinary discipline requires. They will make things tick along nicely.

In a matter of prevention, they will organise and run audit to check that all is happening as it should. Money, Staff, Time, Communication, all these need to be well under control. That's what managers do.

Stabilisation

When things start to wobble or when a measure is indicating a risk of deviation, the managers come in and correct whatever is going wrong. Their role is to stabilise the whole machinery to maximise the chances of successfully delivering the desired outcome.

When they plan the realisation of the strategy, managers put in place measurement mechanisms that will alert them when things are likely to derail. When the alarm goes off, they implement adequate counter-measures to prevent such incident. All in all, they keep the work within the agreed tolerances.

Correction

Yes, staff management is still a thing!

It is fine to have pool table in the office, bring your pet days, complimentary breakfast, cycle schemes, time flexibility, colourful sofas, bright working areas and so forth, but staff still need to deliver results. When things go wrong, who brings them in shape? Who gets in the middle of a conflict to resolve it? Who plays bad cop when needed to correct somebody misdemeanor? Managers in the good old fashioned sense are very much required in any organisation. Even though employes are increasingly gaining autonomy, it doesn't mean they always know what to do; it doesn't mean they always want to do what is required of them. Managers are here to correct through the good old methods of monitoring, reporting and punishing.

Managers are important. Like many others, I am guilty of putting a great emphasis on the need for leadership, but one must never forget that great ideas and grand visions on their own don't achieve much. Management skills are not so easy to find, but they can be learnt and developed through years of experience. They are not very compatible with leadership skills. Leaders skill set is more in the soft area (networking abilities, empathy, sharing a drive, inspiring) whereas strict management of time, people and resources is much more down to the hard competencies. That is why great managers can be appalling leaders (as Microsoft found out with Steve Ballmer). Likewise, very few leaders can manage. That is why the two must pair up and work as a team. Behind Richard Branson are a series of managers who actually keep the various Virgin branches going. Branson's strength is not in being a good manager, but in knowing where to find them.

The key lesson is: wherever you are on the management or leadership scale, be aware of your limitations and work with someone who excels at them.

Feel free to comment and share. Press the heart if you like. And please join me next Thursday for a new article.

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Seb Giroux is a consultant, entrepreneur and author who has run a variety of IT departments for 20 years. His first book, The IT Leader's Manual (Dux Publishing, 2016), provides hands-on tips and a personal framework for any current or aspiring IT leaders.

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