Thinking About Management and Leadership

Happy Mardi Gras! We have been having carnival fun around here for the last few weeks but it’s time to share some snippets and today the focus is models of managing/leading.

Good management is sometimes elusive but always important. Did you know that the traditional textbook definition of management is planning, organizing, controlling, and leading?

In the late 1980s and early 90s, the conversation on how leadership and management differ heated up with books by Warren Bennis, John Kotter, and others. Ways the two differ include:
~The manager maintains; the leader develops.
~The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.
~The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
~The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.
(from What is the Difference Between Leadership and Management?)
However, not everyone makes the distinction and often the words leader and manager are used interchangeably.

A 2016 Gallup study on millennials (you know it kills me to use that label) gives specific guidance on ways that managers and leaders need to evolve to meet the changing desires of today’s workforce. Some of these include shifting focus from paycheck to purpose, from manager to coach, and from annual review to ongoing conversations. The research looked at millennials but the findings apply to managing more than just those aged 23-35.

This excellent SHRM Foundation report titled Selecting Leadership Talent for the 21st Century addresses identifying and developing future leaders. Of interest here are five leadership demands identified by Morgan McCall that can be the basis for evaluating leadership effectiveness which include 1) set and communicate direction, 2) align critical constituencies, 3) demonstrate executive temperament, 4) set and live your values, and 5) grow and learn.
(from Recasting Leadership Development)

Finally, Bill Gentry’s book Be the Boss Everyone Wants to Work For: A Guide For New Leaders is an excellent resource for anyone new to a management/leadership role.

I’ve been thinking a lot about management and leadership as I work on my new series called Remarkable Managers: What They Do, an in depth look at the actions of managers whose work I know and appreciate. Polly Watts, owner of The Avenue Pub in New Orleans is the subject of my first profile. Check it out here if you missed it.

What do you think is the work of managers? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.