Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Has your boss or supervisor ever said any of this to you – I am your
manager; I am managing you; or I manage ten people? What did it make
you think? How did this make you feel?
If the ‘experts’ in the field keep getting this wrong how can we expect mid-
level managers and executives to get this right? The perpetual lack of
understanding with these concepts is holding people back in their careers,
and it is negatively impacting organizational success.
There are people who are great leaders but horrible managers, and there
are people who are great managers and horrible leaders. How can this be?
Because these two competencies require different skillsets. Too often hiring
managers want to hire someone to lead but they focus the entire job
analysis and interview on management and vice versa.
If you want to hire a manager, define the competencies for that role based
on what management is all about. If you want to hire a leader, define the
competencies for that role based on what leadership is all about. If you
want to hire someone who will be competent in both, be sure to outline
what that looks like then create an appropriate position description and ask
the right questions during the interview.
One can hold the title of manager and never actually have staff or
employees under his direction because he is (shall I say it again) ‘managing’
a program, a budget, a project or an enterprise that he actually has control
over and needs to direct, handle and oversee effectively.
Manage things, even manage yourself, but when it comes to other people,
we prefer words like lead, supervise, coach, guide, mentor, etc. It keeps the
perspective away from trying to handle, oversee, direct or worse - control -
other individuals. That would not be appropriate (except in extreme
circumstances - safety, etc.).
Remember when you attempt to ‘manage’ other people, you are in effect
limiting or removing their choices – their power. And when you do this, you
end up losing everything (all the experience, education, training and
brilliance that you hired them for in the first place). Manage the things you
need to manage, but lead the people you are supposed to lead.