Skilled leaders find the right balance between managing and leading, between people-first and task-first, more often than average or poor leaders. Not easy, often misunderstood in the crazy day to day of running businesses, but focusing on Leadership AND Management will help you, your company and your people, ensuring all stakeholders are embraced by you all-encompassing approach.
When asked for the differences between management and leadership, a leading academic said; “ simply, that management deals with complexity while leadership deals with change. Complexity and Change – master those two things and you can write your own ticket in the business world.” Another leading guru said that; “management is about what you do, whereas leadership is about how you do it…”
A recent McKinsey study found these four leadership habits to be most useful, according to the majority of CEO respondents:
- Solving problems effectively
- Operating with a strong results orientation
- Seeking different perspectives
- Supporting others
With their ability to be authentic and show a sincere interest in those around them, managers with obvious leadership skills outshine those managers who know what to do, but who are not good leaders when it comes to how to do it. Exceptional teams led by great leaders exhibit a very strong degree of trust and the individuals in the team show the ability to inspire each other with phenomenal performance.
Edward Murrow said, “To be persuasive, we must be believable; to be believable, we must be credible; to be credible, we must be truthful.”
There is a leadership model which states:
- Managers need to be RELIABLE if they are going to be a good leader
- With a strong moral compass, managers must have INTEGRITY to be a good leader
- Being seen to be fair and GENEROUS by staff, suppliers and customers is seen to be superlative long-term focused leadership skill – clearly not to the detriment of the organization
- Being HONEST is always the best policy (are all the managers in your organization honest in their dealings with all stakeholders?)
- Similar to honesty and integrity, TRUSTWORTHINESS goes beyond both
Align these RIGHT elements with the key management tasks of Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordination, Reporting and Budgeting (POSDCORB), then you will have the duality of management and leadership integrated and you will exhibit the best of management skills and the finest leadership traits.
For help with getting the best out of your current human capital, develop outstanding social capital, stimulate highest standards of organizational capital, then do not hesitate to get in touch with us at SteppingStone Global.