7-26-2012
There's a big difference between what managers do and what leaders do. It's up to you whether you want to be one or the other. But if your goal is to be a real leader in today's highly competitive business world here are ten tips to get you on your way. And while this may be one of the shortest posts I?ve ever written, it took me just as long as one of my 1000-word manifestos.
1. Management and leadership are not the same. Not all leaders are managers and not all managers are leaders. You can be good at one and lousy at the other, or you can be good or bad at both.
2. Managers plan and budget, organize and staff, control and solve problems, and produce predictability and order.*
3. Leaders establish direction, align people, motivate, inspire, mentor, and produce change.*
*Source: John Kotter, "What Leaders Really Do," Harvard Business Review.
4. While leadership and management are different, they are complementary and equally important. One is not "gooder" than the other.
5. Organizations need great leadership and great management or they will crash and burn. To what degree of each depends on the degree of change needed.
6. Given the amount of change most organizations are facing, the need for leadership has increased while the need for management remains constant. Many, if not most organizations are facing a leadership shortage.
7. Neither management nor leadership is a hereditary trait; they both need to be learned and developed over time. For most people, leadership tends to be harder and takes longer to develop.
8. While everyone has some potential to lead, some have more potential than others. Organizations need to cast a wide net to find these individuals and invest in their development.
9. Someone can be appointed a manager but you have to earn the title of leader. A manager can inherit or hire employees, while a leader has to "be elected" by followers to be their leader.
10. You can do management to manage, but you have to be a leader to lead. Management can be an 8-5 job, while leadership is transformational. There is no on-and-off switch.
Dan McCarthy has been in the field of leadership development for over 20 years. He is currently the Director of Executive Development Programs at the University of New Hampshire's Whittemore School of Business and Economics (WSBE).
Reach Dan by e-mail at daniel.mccarthy@unh.edu
Dan's website is www.greatleadershipbydan.com
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