Management vs. Leadership
Carly Fiorina
Building leaders & problem-solvers. Keynote Speaking I Consulting I Leadership Development I Author
If you’ve been reading my newsletter over the last few years, you know that I believe we have a fundamental misunderstanding about leadership in this country. We think it’s about title, position, or power – who has the fanciest office or the biggest parking spot or the most direct reports.
But in fact, leadership is not about any of those things. Leadership is about challenging the status quo and changing the order of things for the better.
Everyone has the potential to be a leader, but not everyone leads.
Why is that? Because the status quo is powerful. People are so often afraid of change; they’re afraid of losing something they have; of trying something new; of saying something that might get them into trouble; of looking dumb, failing, or making a mistake. They’re often very afraid of being criticized.
Because of this fear, a lot of people get stuck and become managers, not leaders. Managers work within the status quo. Leaders challenge the status quo. They do things differently and they make things better. If you challenge the status quo, you are going to be criticized. If you’ve never been criticized, you might be managing instead of leading.
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The price of leadership is criticism; the payoff is solving problems.
That does not mean that managers are bad people. In fact, there are many excellent managers and, in many cases, they are very necessary. But managers do the best they can within existing constraints and conditions. Excellent managers produce excellent results within existing constraints and conditions. But leaders change constraints and conditions. They don’t accept the way things are.
They don’t accept: “This is the way we’ve always done it,” or: “It’s too hard. It’s too different.”
The truth is that fear keeps a lot of people from leading and causes a lot of people to stay where they are and manage within the status quo.
This week, I invite you to reflect: are you a manager or a leader? Are you operating within the constraints of “how thing have always been done” – or are you asking questions, standing up, and taking action to challenge the status quo?
Head of Biology Department at Macleans College
9 个月Sometimes we find ourselves fulfilling both rolls - leading by changing where and when we can when it's necessary but also managing within some of the constraints set. I often find that one of the biggest constraints, as you say, is to change people's mind set from the 'but we've always done it this way and it works fine' to give the 'lets try this, evidence suggests it may be even better'.
Senior Level Financial Services Executive, Advisor, Consult | Global Operations | Leader | Data Manager | Industry Advisor - Consultant | Mentor | Program Manager | Collaborator | Asset, Wealth, and Hedge Funds
10 个月I am just reading this and have some comments - I do believe we need the right leaders in place, no doubt, and NOT everyone can be a leader. What I will add and have experienced, is that most leaders are not about setting the future plans (and yes, I work in mainly large companies!) in a manner where they are disciplined, aware of actualities in the organization, the weaknesses, and then decide and stick to decision to correct and plan out more than 6 months. Listening to the "managers", who may not have the next step of leadership in them but have the knowledge to inform and share what is seen on the daily lines - this is a requirement not always maintained in the leadership system, and yes one I have encountered. You may also be surprised to see then, these "managers" may actually have some good ideas!
Banker
10 个月Great article Carly! Everyone leads someone. It is important for ALL to understand that and embrace the responsibility that comes with it. The Leader should recognize this in everyone and challenge them to be bigger in that role. To only Manage is a waste of potential
Arts Educator, Musician, and Arts Advocate
10 个月Being a leader can often be lonely, especially when the status quo does not want to budge and wants to play it safe. It takes guts to speak up and challenge things. Also, some leaders are not recognized for these efforts.