Are you managing or leading?
You’re probably familiar with the differences between how managers vs. leaders engage their team, but are you familiar with the functional differences of these roles? If career growth is your goal, you should be cautious of getting stuck in management positions and not challenging yourself to step into leadership. Don’t get me wrong, managers are needed for a business to operate effectively. Management experience is an excellent opportunity to hone necessary skills for effective leadership. But leaders know how to play their role in a way that deeply impacts business outcomes - and that’s where the money is :).
Here’s the key areas where managers and leaders diverge (and where you want to focus your efforts if you're looking to develop as a leader):
VISION
Managers create goals. Leaders create vision.
Vision describes the long-term objectives and desired impact of an organization. Managers follow and implement their company’s vision by effective goal setting and goal management. Good managers ensure that people on various teams and with different responsibilities operate efficiently to achieve those goals.
In contrast, leaders focus on creating a compelling vision. This process involves visualizing the future success that you will realize from implementing a new vision, including the benefits to the company and its clients, shareholders (for public companies), communities, and employees. Great leaders are effective at selling their vision and getting others to want to join the journey of making that vision a reality.
If you’re looking to transition from management to leadership, you need to assess how much time you spend innovating and ideating versus administering and executing. The latter will keep you stuck in management and the former will propel you into leadership.
VALUE CREATION
Managers count value. Leaders create value.
Managers often focus on extracting value (labor) from their team in the most efficient ways possible. They understand the key performance metrics that drive productivity on their team and hold their team accountable for meeting those metrics. Good managers also track the value that is being generated by their team. They deeply understand drivers of income, expenses and impact in their scope of management.
Leaders are aware of those management-level value levers, but they focus on value creation. There are many ways in which leaders create value, but a key method is through translating their vision into strategy. Strategy development consists of designing, planning and optimizing the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term. Good leaders create a clear strategy of how to bring their vision to reality (and then they rely on inspiring great managers to bring that reality to fruition). Great leaders know that value is an assessment by a client, not an innate characteristic of a product, service, or actions. Value is subjective, which is why the next leadership factor is so important.
INNOVATION
Managers organize. Leaders innovate.
Managers are focused on optimizing the status-quo, such as refining existing systems to make them more efficient. Process-oriented work is needed, but that doesn’t often create innovation. In contrast, leaders are consistently thinking beyond the status quo and they welcome significant change. Even if things are working well, leaders are always considering better paths forward - this is how you develop and maintain a competitive advantage.
In order to innovate, leaders take an “owners” perspective over their company. They treat their company as their own business, and that means that they know the KPIs that impact their business as a whole. They also understand external micro and macro factors that will impact their business. Your business environment directly affects the way you can innovate.
To make that transition from manager to leader, you must get out of the paper pushing routines and allow yourself to reimagine what your work could be and the impact that the new strategy could create.
INFLUENCE AND POWER
Managers use their power to control. Leaders use their influence to inspire.
Functionally, managers have subordinates over which they exert power. Traditional managers use their power to control their team to accomplish a goal. While leaders may also do some of that, leadership is the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute to the organization's success. Leaders inspire followers and create circles of influence. Management is a function of leadership. But you can be a manager without being a leader.
A big lie we’ve bought is that our title determines whether we can lead. You can have ZERO direct reports and still be a leader. One great way to know if you’re a leader is to consider the number of people outside of your reporting hierarchy who come to you for advice. The more often you do, the more likely it is that you’re perceived to be a leader.
Of course, your impact grows when you have the capacity of a team to implement your initiatives, but if you wait for the benefits of a formal leadership title to step up to the plate to be a leader, you’ll never get there. Leadership roles should be earned by those who demonstrate they are willing and able to lead.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Managers focus on what got them here. Leaders focus on what will get them there.
Managers often focus on what made them successful, perfecting existing skills and adopting “proven” behaviors. But leaders know that getting to the next level will require new skills, experiences and knowledge. They understand that if they aren’t learning something new everyday, they aren’t just standing still, they are falling behind. Leaders adopt a “curiosity first” mentality and seek out the information, skills and relationships that they need to remain relevant in a constantly changing world. They are committed to expanding their thinking and they are willing to innovate what leadership looks like in practice.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The great news is that the skills described in this article can be learned. The question is whether you’re ready, willing and able to commit to the growth process.
What often makes the transition from manager to leadership difficult is a feeling that you don’t have enough time or you are already too overwhelmed to add on additional career responsibilities. Remember that leadership is something that you embody for yourself - not others. It is a characteristic that you take on because you know that you will receive more value (money) when you can create more value (business income or impact). These are transferable skills that can be applied anywhere once learned - but you have to take the initiative to learn them.
Some of us have also allowed ourselves to take on additional work responsibilities without asking for additional value (bonus or salary increase), which has made us hesitant to do “more”. Working with a coach can help you identify the right path forward for you to move from management to leadership, without feeling taken advantage of.
Ready to accelerate your path to leadership? Reach out and we can discuss how you can get started.
Further Reading:
Harvard Business School Online
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, Marshall Goldsmith
