Management or Leadership?
What does it mean to be a manager and what does it mean to be a leader? Most people use the term manager or boss at work but look to government or the news for “leaders.” The truth is that a good manager is a leader much more than a boss. Though management and leadership are different roles, within a small organization both roles are often filled by a single person. In describing some of these concepts at a micro level, the terms can be used largely interchangeably. Within a large established organization these roles are often broken up and can be thought of as the CEO (leader) and the COO (manager).
Servant leadership is a term that has been floating around for a while but it is not a great description. A leader is a servant of their team but is ultimately responsible for all decisions as well. These decisions can’t always be democratic or at the behest of the team, sometimes a leader must also be an authoritarian within their sphere of influence. A leader or manager has information outside of what is available to the team and sometime needs to make quick decisions that it would take too long to get consensus on ahead of time. In those situations, the leader must have the trust of their team by establishing good will.
On a day-to-day basis the leader or manager should be drawing clear lines of expectation both for the team and for their team to have of them. Consistency and follow through are critical to having the team’s respect and trust. The leader is the servant of the team and more broadly of the business but the leader is also the person charged with making the decisions that will ultimately lead to the success or failure of the organization. In order to effectively make those decisions it is critical to have the information that can only come from those people on the team who are in the field, talking to customers, dealing with the day-to-day issues that arise. The leader may not be connected enough to see those issues themselves, particularly in a geographically spread team or one where the manager has a skill set that differs from some people on the team (a necessity for a fully functional and resilient team).
In order for a leader or manager to effectively keep a team moving in the right direction, they must stay in close contact with those who report directly to them and to be in touch with those employees within the organization who they do not deal with directly on a daily basis. The input from everyone on the team must be synthesized and decisions made based on that information. The key concept here is that a leader must have good people they trust working toward a common goal and the respect and trust must flow in both directions.
Next week I will break down one way to look at the functional side of this leader/worker relationship. Please forward this along to anyone you think might benefit from these concepts. I look forward to supporting you any way I can. Drop me a note on LinkedIn, at my email address stratton@downeaststratmc.com or forward my intro blog to a friend. It provides tips and explores management principles.
