Leader and Manager: Why You Need Both Skill Sets
Transcript
“Be a leader, not a manager” is sort of a common post on LinkedIn, sometimes like a false dichotomy, as if leaders are good and managers are bad. It’s not always like that, but sometimes it seems like clickbait nonsense for social media.
It is an important distinction though. Of course, we know that in real life both leadership and management are essential skill sets, and neither should be neglected.
You don’t manage people; you manage things. You lead people. To be most effective, we need to do both; lead people and manage things.
So, instead of viewing leadership and management as opposing forces, let’s focus on improving and integrating both aspects. We can try to develop well-rounded professionals who can inspire and manage effectively at all levels.
It’s important to recognize that some people don’t want to be leaders or managers. In some cases, the job doesn’t pay enough. In other cases, the potential for significantly more pay might make them want to, and with better training in soft skills those people may become great leaders. In some cases, it might be best to figure out who wants to stay as an individual contributor.
A real issue is that we often promote people based on their technical skills or individual performance but don’t equip them with the people skills and emotional intelligence they need to thrive in leadership roles. This leadership gap can result in disengagement, reduced performance, and high turnover.
On the other hand, sometimes a talented leader may be promoted while lacking managerial skills, which can be a huge problem on technical projects, resulting in poor organization, low quality, and delayed completion. Probably, more technical training is needed for those people.
We can put people together with complementary skills, a leader and a manager, to run a project. I find this usually works pretty well, and these different people can help each other develop their skills through cross training.
Companies don’t always pay enough attention to the different aspects of leadership and management, and don’t set up an effective balance when putting a team together. Sometimes we just have to work with what have now.
So many companies kind of half-ass their training, which is short sighted and barely effective. For long term benefit, companies should really make sure that their training programs address both the soft skills of leadership and the technical skills of management for balanced development.
Like when someone asked, “What if we train them and they leave?” and the reply was “What if we DON’T train them and they stay?”
Someone else said, “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” I think that’s a great answer.
Going back to the Leader versus Manager issue that I started with, I will share a chart that helps differentiate and unite the two parts that are needed to form a complete package. And I will share some more resources. Check the comments. And let me know your thoughts about this topic, any questions or suggestions.
Until next time, onward and upward. Out.
Distinctions Between Management and Leadership
There must be a million Manager vs. Leader charts on the internet, some of them sort of demonizing management.
This one is good and fairly simple. Here is a chart that helps to differentiate and unite the two parts that are needed to form a complete package.
| Management involves: | Leadership involves: |
|---|---|
| Focusing on managing complexity by planning and budgeting with the aim of producing orderly results, not change. | Focusing on producing change by developing a vision for the future along with strategies for bringing about the changes needed to achieve that vision. |
| Developing the capacity to achieve plans by creating an organization structure and staffing it – developing human systems that can implement plans as precisely and efficiently as possible. | Aligning people by communicating the new direction and creating coalitions that understand the vision and are committed to its achievement. |
| Ensuring plan accomplishment by controlling and problem-solving – formally and informally comparing results to the plan, identifying deviations and then planning and organizing to solve the problems. | Using motivation to energize people, not by pushing them in the right direction as control mechanisms do, but by satisfying basic human needs for achievement, a sense of belonging, recognition, self-esteem, a feeling of control over one’s life and the ability to live up to one’s ideals. |
Excerpted from Kotter, J P (1991) Power, dependence and effective management, in Managing People and Organizations,ed J Gabarro, pp 33–49, Harvard Business School Publications, Boston, MA
Resources
It’s great if a company invests in training, but you should also invest in your own training for continuous improvement, even if they don’t. Here are some resources that I recommend:
Mack Story
Mack Story talks and writes about leadership. He has produced series of videos and books that are geared toward blue-collar employers and employees.
See the Blue-Collar Leadership website: https://bluecollarleaders.com
Jason Schroeder
Jason Schroeder talks and writes about leadership too, plus a lot about construction-specific management.
I highly recommend his book Elevating Construction Senior Superintendents, which has been helpful to me. Buy it from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3EWdqug
See the Elevate Construction website: https://elevateconstructionist.com
Armstrong’s Handbook of Management and Leadership
This is an academic textbook. Somewhat dry and matter of fact, with lots of references to research studies. Not the most entertaining book, but very thorough and not too difficult to read.
Buy Armstrong’s Handbook of Management and Leadership from Amazon: https://amzn.to/4gWRwnT
Train Your Empathy
I read Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence a long time ago and found it fascinating, but I think a more useful book is Patrick King’s Train Your Empathy to help improve your relationship skills.
Buy Train Your Empathy from Amazon: https://amzn.to/41h2PS4