What is a leader versus a manager? It’s one of the most pressing questions for
organizations that are developing and growing, especially in rapidly evolving industries.
It’s really a fundamental underlying question of how do we get the most out of the human capital
inside our organization. How do we ensure that the right people are in the right places, and
that they’re transforming the organization into who it needs to be tomorrow. When we’re thinking
about leaders versus managers, we have a few specific mental models. In this video, we’re going
to cover those by starting with what is a leader versus a manager. If we clarify our definition,
it will help us talk about the second two pieces. Point number two is about how we think about
why leaders are more effective than managers. And third, if leaders are more effective than
managers, how do you create more of them inside an organization. To start with, were going to build
our mental model for you of what the difference is between a leader and a manager. In our mental
model, we have a Venn diagram. Inside the large bubble of the Venn diagram are all managers inside
an organization. And we define managers as people that have some kind of reporting relationship,
direct or indirect, with other people inside the organization. A subset of those managers are also
leaders. So in our definition, there may be many managers, but few leaders. What’s the
difference between a leader and a manager? We really like a quote by Peter Drucker. He said,
“Leadership is doing the right things. Management is doing things right.” The common visual that
we get for this is that if someone is on hiking expedition, a manager is the one who climbs the
tree to determine if you’re headed in the right direction. The one that you planned on going in.
The leader is the one who climbs the tree to determine if you’re in the right forest. The big
picture view of leadership creates impact inside an organization because it doesn’t retain
a focus on managing the status quo, which is what all managers collectively often focus on.
Leaders rather think about transforming an organization. Managers are focused on the daily.
Leaders are focused on the annual. And when you’re a leader and a manager in that intersection,
you think about both together. Not just how in a single year you’re going to go
where you want to go, but what you should be doing on a daily basis in order to get there.
Larger picture leaders, leaders of entire organizations, think at an even higher level.
They should, at least. They should think on a five-year scale. Where do we want to be, who do
we want to be in a five year period versus where we today. Leaders are different than managers,
and again, they can’t disconnect from the daily because leaders that are good at only vision
and not execution never realize the potential of their ideas. So that’s why in our mental model,
leaders must also be managers. There is no option for leaders that are not
managers. The second question is why are leaders more effective than managers. Leaders are more
effective than managers drive growth inside organizations. They drive transformation.
Managers are excellent at ensuring that nothing falls by the wayside. That there is not a decrease
in revenue or a decrease in productivity, that people don’t leave the organization unnecessarily.
But growth in managers alone is nearly impossible. Because their design is to focus on
delivery. When we move down the scale and we think about someone at the analyst level,
their focus is primarily not just on delivery from the organization standpoint, but single delivery.
When we move up the scale to managers who are also leaders, they create transformation inside
the organization. The vision that they provide ties people and purpose together. It enables
organizations to take the why instead of the how. It also imparts that to larger teams of people,
which ensures greater productivity. So a manager says this is how you do it. A leader says here’s
why. You go figure out the how. It’s an empowering technique that retains power
distributed inside organizations, which makes them on the whole more productive.
So if leader managers are different than just managers alone, and if leaders are more effective,
then the pressing question remains. How do you create more of them inside an organization? The
critical step to ensure that you have a built-in process to identify those who are leaders to
impart the skills that they have throughout your organization. And to train people to think more
like leaders. These are tactics that we can help with inside Management Consulted. In fact, we have
very specific trainings and tools that you can use on a one time or on an annual basis to help
your people think about the why of what they do, to drive growth and transformation, and to improve
the clarity of the way that we think. We use a training that’s based on a concept called the
pyramid principle to drive transformation inside your organization. If you would like to take what
we’ve talked about in this video and make it a part of your culture, transforming managers to
leaders, we would love to help. You can reach out to us at managementconsulted.com, or by email.
We’re excited to partner with you as you drive your engine of growth inside your company.