People Want to Be Lead Not Managed

“You don’t manage people; you manage things. You lead people.” Admiral Grace Hopper

What will we see more in the future of work? Humans will focus on what they can do better: leadership, influence, creativity, innovation and inspiration. We will see more of the extinction of managers and resurgence of leaders in the workplace. Management will be left to AI and technologies. The major role of people in the workplace will be to provide caring leadership.

When people like Peter Drucker introduced management and elevated it to be king in businesses, we all applauded and celebrated them. Management is the reason why we measure success wrongly. We measure success by things that people help us produce rather than by what we transform the people to become.

Many go to the University to get management degrees. Corporation created the faceless management and start programs to transform everyone into managers. People are treated based on their function, title and position. Managers thought their jobs was to get smart, get better experience and be skillful in using the latest management tools.

What no one ever mentioned was the fact that people cannot be managed; only things should be managed. People want to be lead not managed. People want to have good life. Many people have made millions, billions of dollars, but have broken lives. Not just their lives but they have equally destroyed other people’s lives and family in the process.

Management doesn’t care how money is made, but leadership does. That is because leadership measures success by its impact on the lives of people it is privileged to lead. Leadership is all about people, using things to better the life of people while management is all about things, using people to create things. Management only create value for few people, but leadership creates value for everyone.

“Management is the manipulation of others for your own success.” Bob Chapman

Leadership recognize and celebrate the sacrifices people make for the good of others, but management recognize and celebrate those who are willing to sacrifice others for the success of the organization. Management makes people inhumane, while leadership focus on bringing out their humanity. We are all created to be humans but never managers. Leadership is our destiny.

“Great leadership isn’t about control. It’s about empowering people.” Brigette Hyacinth

Management is all about control and planning. These are all good. However, leaders don’t control people. They instead create an environment where people are free to unleash their potential. Even though managers are concern about the future like managers, they only care about things (earnings, share prices etc) not the people. The purpose of business should be to make life better for people starting with the employees and not use employees to make others successful.

Managers are value maintainers. They maintain what has already been created. They deploy people and create task to ensure that what was created is maintained. They ensure that people show up in time, do their jobs, meet expectations, don’t cause any problems, maintain the status quo and the show up the next day to repeat the cycle. The more the employees work and the harder, the more someone gets richer. No manager cares about the employee’s life outside work. All they care about is that he or she shows up and keep the wheel moving.

Managers think people are motivate by money or fear so they use the carrot and stick concept of motivation. What they don’t know that leaders understand is that people are motivated by doing things that give them meaning, sense of belonging, feeling of being valued, happiness and where they are unleash their potential to make contributions to make life better for others. While managers motivate people to person with either fear or money, leaders inspire people to perform with a high purpose, a cause, that is compelling and challenging, which brings out the best in humans.

Management creates silos called department and restricts who create value in the workplace and also regulate who earn what based on their position and job title. The structure of the workplace become hierarchical and bureaucratic. However, leaders create a flat everyone where everyone feels a sense of belonging and care and they can collaborate to create value. Leaders reward people based on the value they created not the title they hold.

When a business isn’t doing well, the manager thinks of who to fire to ensure that the load is taking off the business as a CEO did recently firing 800 staff at once. A leader on the other hand will consider the impact of that decision of the people. They consider what will happen to people who depend on them. Instead of firing the people, they come up with a strategy for everyone to sacrifice in order that everyone stays. When people trust you have their back, they will do everything to ensure you win.

What managers don’t understand is that the decisions we make impact the lives of the people we have. When someone is fired, by extension the person’s family may be impacted negatively. His family will be affected. His mental health and self esteem will definitely be affected. If someone is not performing, meeting expectations, in his role, managers are quick to fire the person but leaders will find a role the person loves in the organization.

In reality, we cannot manage humans. Humans are complicated system functioning to create an outcome. You cannot manage human emotions, potentials and talents. You cannot quantify or measure them. When you try to manage it, you end up micromanaging or limiting people. Creativity and innovation cannot be planned, organized or coordinated; it only happens when people feel inspired.

Humans are not finite, but infinite. Management is premised on the ability to predict how things will turn out but leadership is based on the ability to create. Management sees everything as finite or scarce and need to be controlled and managed. Leadership, on the other hand, understands that human ingenuity is infinite resource that empowers other resources with the ability to create value.

“If creativity and innovation could have been organized, Apple would have continued innovating the same way Steve Jobs innovated. General Electric would have systemized Thomas Edison’s inventiveness. Inspiration, not motivation, releases human ingenuity.” Oladimeji Olutimehin

The work of a manager is to manager job descriptions, processes and tasks (and automated systems can do that), while the work of a leader is to develop people into leaders. When people are the products of your company, you will develop and transform them into great leaders. Your business becomes a company of leaders.

When an organization goes bankrupt, it means that the potential of its people is not being unleashed and their ingenuity employed. Businesses need to have more leaders than managers. I see a time coming when there will be no managers in an organization. Everyone will be a leader, empowered to create value, and working in an environment that is designed to inspired and make them feel valued. Here are some thoughts about the difference between managers and leaders:

Managers manage for results, leaders make people better leaders

Managers make followers, leaders make leaders

Managers manage processes, leaders inspire people

Managers manipulate with threats, leaders inspire with people-centered purpose

Manager are quick to fire, leaders are quick to coach

Managers measure success by goals achieved, leaders measure success by lives the build

Managers maintain status quo, leaders challenge status quo

Manager use people to get resources, leaders use resources to build people

Managers view people as resources, leaders view people as assets

Managers believe in systems, leaders believe in people

Managers control people, leaders develop and release people

Are you a manager or leader? You are a leader when you serve people with a higher purpose and create an environment that allow people be all that they have been created to be. Truly Human Leaders are the pillars of the Truly Human Company.

In January 2022, I will be holding a Truly Human Business Model Design Masterclass. In this Masterclass, you will learn how to design a people-centered purpose for your business, employee value proposition, truly human culture, employee and customer experience and more. It will be on Zoom. If you are interested to joining, kindly email me at [email protected]

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