LEADERSHIP VS MANAGEMENT
Posted by thebusinessace on September 30, 2009
In differentiating the run of the mill enterprise from the extraordinary one, I have explored a couple of attributes common to many successful CEOs: Empowerment and Recruiting for the future. In this episode of this 4 part series, I will look at what happens when Leadership is absent allowing Management to hold too much sway.
Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do what you want because he wants to do it.
Management: The process of dealing with or controlling things or people.
It looks pretty clear from the above definitions that these are two very different things, both of which are essential to the extraordinary enterprise. It is likely that the run of the mill enterprise has only one of these. What characterises the organisation without clear leadership is a sense of confusion or uncertainty about “the mission”. It is where there is an obvious disconnect between sales and service, the “who sold you this then” mentality. The command and control micro manager is in charge here where the disinterested receptionist or telephone operator just can’t be bothered, or where any unattended phone in the office is never answered.
We have all experienced these levels of service at some point in our lives, and we have all probably asked ourselves “just how difficult can it be to get service to talk to sales?” (or vice versa) or “why doesn’t somebody pick up the phone?” In any organisation where the emphasis is on control rather than empowerment it won’t matter how many processes, checkpoints, targets or review mechanisms are put in place, the outcome will be the same; disconnected islands of endeavour with no overall idea of the big picture. People doing what is demanded of them but no more, because they are not aware of the need to do anything else that might better fit the goals and objectives of the organisation.
Sure, management is absolutely necessary to allocate roles and responsibilities, and even to keep score. But if management exists in a vacuum no one will be able to lift their heads up for a moment to see if the horizon is getting nearer, because no one has set out a clear direction to look towards.
Leadership provides the focus for everyone’s emotional and intellectual engagement in your business. It organises everybody’s energies to point in the same direction. Strong, visible, confident and honest leadership provides a clear sense of direction and purpose and defines the framework for everyone to operate in: both employees and customers.
