“You are a leader now, not a manager.”
“Start leading, stop managing.”
I remember hearing this when I first stepped into a middle management role. A manager of team-leaders. At first, I took it at face value. Leadership books, articles, conversations. I dove into them all, trying to figure out what it meant to truly lead.
Here is what I found.
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker
“Managers light a fire under people; leaders light a fire in people.” – Kathy Austin
“Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.” – Steve Jobs
“The manager administers; the leader innovates. The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective. The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why. The manager has his eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the horizon. The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.” – Warren G. Bennis
“The key difference between a manager and a leader: a manager has subordinates, a leader has followers.” – Anonymous
There are many more.
These quotes make it sound like leadership and management are completely separate things. One is bold and inspiring, the other just about rules and execution. I believed that too. Until Dave changed my perspective.
In the early years of managing teams, these theories play a crucial role. They sow the seeds of differences. It creates a sense of division — a leader vs. a manager. A perception that a leader is better than a manager and they are different people.
A few years into my journey, after absorbing all the leadership wisdom I could find, I asked my mentor Dave what he thought. He leaned back in his chair, swirling a glass of red wine in his hand, and grinned like he knew something I didn’t.
“You need to be a good manager to be a good leader. AND a good leader to be a good manager. You need to both lead AND manage.”
His emphasis on AND was not just a regular emphasis on a word. It was more like AAAANNNNNNDDDD. That is why it probably stuck with me.
It brought a big shift in how I thought about it. Lead the people to manage the business outcomes.
In IT you can’t “inspire” people to do their time-sheets. Ask any engineer who has done weekly (or daily) time-sheets, and they will tell you how much they loathe it. The information presented was too vague. I chose to sit with the teams to understand their challenges and implemented changes that made sense for all.
From the board and stakeholders’ point of view, success depends upon execution, processes, systems and boundaries. Without execution, leadership is just a romantic idea. A nice quote on a slide. After all, the boards still refer to the leadership teams as “Management”.
So, does that mean managers can’t inspire? That leaders don’t care about execution? Of course not. The survival of a business depends upon both — great management and great leadership. Otherwise, leaders at the top will have no idea of the ground reality. The middle managers will be ruthless executors.
If you have just started on your management and leadership journey, this is a great time to:
- Seek a mentor, actually mentors with different skills.
- Recognize that you need both skills, and you can learn both (Yes, Leaders are born – is a myth.)
- Understand the paradoxical nature of leadership and management. Play with it. Strike the balance.
Leadership and management aren’t rivals. They’re dance partners. Get good at both, and that’s where the real magic happens.
Sid Kumar 