Leadership and management work hand-in-hand but they are not the same. This is the mistake we all tend to make rather than looking at these two elements differently.
Think of it this way, if you are too busy managing there is no way you can be an effective leader. Added to this, if you don’t have management teams, processes and systems in place it is highly likely that you will be able to do either.
Okay, so what’s the differences here?
Leadership
Leaders set direction and they set an inspiring vision that is worthwhile for people to follow and believe in.
Leaders build and guide the best team to achieve the vision. So, whilst the leaders set the direction they must also use basic management skills to hire and leverage great managers to guide their business and people to the right destination as efficiently and effectively as possible.
A number of very successful business leaders believe that there are four key aspects that go into great leadership.
1. Vision
You must sell and share your vision, break it down into the project vision and then link this into how it serves the values and vision of the individuals in that team.
You must set a clear and defined outcome and destination to everyone involved on the project. These also need to be tangible and definitely achievable.
2. Team building
As that leader, you are responsible for building the very best team you possible can. Maximum results and maximum time preservation are dependent on this.
When a football manager move from one club to another many are known to take with them their known backroom staff including physios and dieticians. You will only be as good as your team that is around you.
3. Inspiration
You need to create your vision, sell it and then share it.
Care about the team and the individuals enough to find out their values so that you can take them on the journey that meets their values through your vision.
4. Feedback
Feedback is the mechanism that checks that everything is moving in the right direction for the entire team, not just the leader.
You could be doing something the wrong way or the long way. You may be going in the wrong direction or no direction. You may think that you’re flying but really the team are dying. The way to get through all of these obstacles is feedback.
Feedback needs to be in all directions, which means that you as the leader have to accept and invite this too. This is the only way to accurately evaluate the progress towards your vision.
Never ever let your ego get in the way of vital and valuable information that could correct your course, solve a problem or serve the greatest number of people.
Management
The role of managers is to hold the hand of the leaders by holding their hand, guiding them, supporting them and help them operationally and logistically get there.
Here are five key elements that need to be used to systemize and create effective management structures.
1. Share your vision
People need to feel that they are working towards something worthwhile. As the manager you are the source of the vision, and the inspiration to the team that you can get there together.
Refocusing on the vision will solve many of the issues and challenges that arise on your journey.
2. Have a manager to manage the managers and the team
The bigger your team gets, the harder the job is to manage and spread your inspiration across everyone.
The theory amongst many of the management experts is that you can only effectively manage directly, six or seven people maximum. Any more than this and the workload, pressure and overwhelm increase. This then limits the ability to be effective and give care and attention.
When the team is too big to manage effectively you need to get them to find their own answers and allow for mistakes. As long as you still have that vision for the end goal and can still see the bigger picture.
3. Set your course and adjust
The best way to describe this is to look at an aircraft using a satellite navigation system. The plane’s course is off course much more than it is on course.
The plane has a course heading that it follows, but on average any airplane will actually be off course 95 percent of its flight. The planes sophisticated computer systems then make a correction and puts the plane back on course. There are factors that then change the course again such as wind.
Again, the plane’s computer systems make another correction to set the plane back on course. This continues throughout the entire flight.
When someone explained this to me and linked this to leadership and management it seemed to make sense. So, correct and adjust your course depending on the obstacles and factors that come into play.
4. Give good feedback
Feedback is always important, particularly in a constructive way. It should never be about ripping into someone, especially in public. This includes feedback coming back to you. Be humble enough to listen and learn what others are saying whether you believe it to be correct or not.
Lastly, don’t expect others to live up to the same standards that you set yourself.
