Management is about organising resources and the inherent complication that arises as resources increase: establishing and maintaining processes, procedures, and policies—creating high performing teams—and preventing organisations from descending into chaos.
For regular readers of this column, the notion that leadership and management are not synonyms isn't something new. Yet in the past I have only provided the briefest reasoning for why this is the case. In this piece, and the two that follow in subsequent weeks, I will unpack the key differences between what managers and leaders do; explore the contrasts between aligning people and organising resources; and conclude with some thoughts on the value of a leader-manager and why such individuals are so rare in organisations.
The motivation is that whenever I am consulted on why an employee, team, or initiative is troubled, the cause is usually one of three reasons—in some cases all three are in play:
- Lack of necessary resources to achieve the goal.
- Lack of quality management to organise the resources that are made available.
- Lack of sound leadership to align people and enable change.
Lack of resourcing is a topic I will explore in the future as there is much that can be done—either to do more with less or to encourage greater investment. This leaves how and why the acts of management and leadership can either undermine or facilitate. When both sound management and quality leadership are effectively used, an organisation is well placed to tackle the 10 near term strategic challenges.
I'm Too Sexy For Management
To begin at the beginning and address the elephant in the room, leadership is not better than management—in the same way a hammer is not better than a screwdriver. They both have their merits and their faults and, rather than trying to use one tool to complete every task, effectiveness is measured by whether the right tool is used for the job.
What is true is that leadership is generally considered much sexier than management. This is manifest in that every organisation with a learning and development budget is running some variant of a leadership course for its Line Managers. A process that is only accelerating the push by every person and their dog to be seen as a leader in the organisation. After all, leadership is the process by which the big decisions are made and for which big bucks paid—or are they?
On closer inspection this branding of leadership is only true in the same way that a swimsuit model is sexier than someone who is a little frumpy. Superficially yes, but if I am trying to achieve something important, give me the frumpy individual who can get the job done over the model who stands around thinking that looks alone deliver solutions.
