Leader Versus Manager

Take these simple definitions from John Kotter, HBR 1990. Management is about dealing with complexity. Leadership is about dealing with change. In today’s climate, you need both sets of skills, but not everyone does both equally well. If you do not have the balance of skills, it is important to build them or find team members who can help.

Before moving on, think of a project or a team of which you are currently in charge. As the skill set is discussed, which of these activities are you doing-- managing or leading or both? Some amount of both is necessary. Do you have the right balance?

In our projects, we manage complexity by planning and budgeting—setting goals for the next month or year; establishing detailed steps for achieving those targets, and then allocating resources to accomplish those plans. This activity is intended to create specific predicted results. 

By contrast, setting a direction requires you to examine a large amount of information, looking for patterns, relationships, and linkages that help predict an appropriate path forward. Leading an organization to constructive change requires developing a vision of the (often distant) future along with strategies to achieve that vision. 

Long-term planning is not a solution for a lack of direction. With no vision and strategy to guide planning, managers can get caught up in planning for every possible contingency, causing the process to seemingly go on forever--draining time, energy, and resources. Creating direction before planning provides focus and prioritization for the planning and budgeting activity. Direction must be provided before planning. 

Is the plan you are working on today guided by a vision? Where is the plan taking you? Are the activities on your to-do list moving you toward a vision or just filling your day?

Managers develop the capacity to achieve a plan by organizing and staffing--that is, creating an organizational structure and set of jobs for precisely and efficiently accomplishing a plan; staffing the jobs with qualified individuals; communicating the plan to those people, and devising a system to monitor implementation of the plan. In today’s highly interdependent, matrix organizations, it is a complex problem to determine reporting structures, accountability, and resource allocation.

Trying to get people to understand a vision of an unknown future is even more difficult than organizing individuals around a plan. Aligning people is not a design problem, but rather a communication problem. A leader must communicate the new direction to anyone who can implement the vision or strategies, or can block it, including subordinates, bosses, peers, staff in other parts of the organization, suppliers, and customers. Repeated communication occurs using many different vehicles and venues. Understanding and acceptance of the vision by others requires from the leader—both credibility and an ability to communicate in a clear, memorable means.

Broad knowledge of the direction results in an empowered workforce. Using networks of informal relationships, empowered people know how to actually get the work done in a way that few organizing managers can plan. Employees will be more willing to take risks if they know that their actions are aligned with those of the superiors in the organization. 

Can you clearly and memorably articulate your project or team vision? As a quick measure of alignment, take a survey of 5 team members and ask them to articulate your vision. 

Managers ensure plan accomplishment by controlling and problem-solving— monitoring results against the plan utilizing reports and meetings to identify deviations from the plan, and creating actions to solve the perceived problems. For quality control and predictability, adherence to the plan becomes the goal, and individuals are rewarded for doing what is expected by the plan. 

But a leader moves a vision forward by motivating and inspiring—keeping people moving in the right direction, despite major obstacles to change, by appealing to basic but often untapped human needs, values and emotions. A leader achieves this condition when they highlight the values of the audience they are addressing; regularly involves people in deciding how to achieve the organization’s vision; support employees’ efforts to realize the vision by providing feedback and coaching; and recognizing and rewarding success. Together these methods make the work important to the employee; the employee feels in control; the employee can grow professionally and they feel a sense of accomplishment. All of these are essential human needs that when fulfilled lead to greater performance.

Does your project need more consistency and predictability or does your project need more innovation and creativity? Which of these do your activities promote among the team members? 

Usually, it is assumed that good managers are good leaders. Or good leaders are good managers. 

After reading about all three skill sets, do you think this is true? By applying these ideas to your own team or project, you can see why being both can be difficult, but that a mix of both skillsets is necessary. These skills can be learned and improved. Consider creating a vision around your management and leadership balance and working out a plan to get you there.

Do you know a leader who could benefit from this article? Share it with them!

Jonathan partners with high-performing technical specialists to reach their full potential as people leaders. Combining his science background, corporate experience, and teaching skills, he creates a knowing and trusting relationship necessary to ask clients to do the hard work of building new skills, using their time differently, and embracing values that bring them and the organization the greatest success. To learn how Jonathan can help your organization, visit envisionpartnersllc.com.