Organizations that confuse the Leader with the Manager

Organizations often confuse leadership and management. The big difference is that leadership is not a role! It?is an attitude from a certain behavior. On the other hand, there are leaders and managers: While a leader is the one who positions himself with a clear vision about the future of the organization, the manager is responsible for the complex day-to-day problems. In the Armed Forces, in periods of stress there is clear and evident leadership. Management duty is prepared and completed far before and soon after these stressful moments. In war, management concerns are not viable. At such times a leader who shows love and support for his employees (or troops) is focused solely on the mission and their well-being.

In day-to-day situations in the workplace, there is sometimes confusion between leadership and management resulting in poor results for the organization. Few people in the world can do both roles well. Being able to stay on the field with all its day-to-day, moment-to-moment concerns and analyze the whole field where the match is taking place is not an easy task. In the game of Football, rarely there is that great player - who sees the whole game and can anticipate the movements of their team and the opposing team. That can assert himself as a leader. The intensity of this involvement prevents most from having an out-of-the-field vision.

And this mixture of leadership and management triggers in complex organizations an encystment - an enclosed or cocoon response in employees much the same as exists in Nature whenever environmental conditions are deficient. Animals become entrenched, reducing their energy consumption, and create a protective cover until the entire environment is once again conducive to their development.

Closure within oneself with less willingness to work, to leave early or extend lunch, or the inability to be effective or innovative with employees who are used to watching and asking leadership to decide for them and tell them how to solve day-to-day problems is the obvious sign of this encystment.

The goal then becomes to create a realistic vision from well-known and tested business ideas. What makes a great vision crucial is not originality but how it serves the interests of everyone - shareholders, customers, and employees - and how it can be translated into a realistic strategy. Poor vision - not seeing the whole field - necessarily ignores a portion of the stakeholders and their rights.

To explore more about leaders who show this kind of skills, the World Agility Forum gathers a group of thought leaders from the most prestigious organizations to share their story with you. Last year we had the fortunate opportunity to be with organizations such as the LEGO Group, Bial and GE Appliances.

Join us to learn more about their leadership stories! Remember: One is none and two are one!

Hugo Louren?o.