Alexandra Fulton

10/27/22

Professor Wlodarski

Paper #2

Leadership vs Management

According to Godin, a leader an individual who exemplifies innovation, knows how to

“lean”, someone who is not afraid of standing out, making mistakes, or creating change to keep

up with the world or it’s growing possibilities and technological advances. After watching his

lesson regarding leadership versus management, I would unfortunately have to consider myself a

manager based on the clear differences and valid points he made explaining the difference.

Godin changed my beliefs and my perspective on how I should proceed in future positions in my

career going forward.

In past job positions I have always worked under or specifically in management within

the service industry. I held positions mostly in restaurants, hotels, or bars where I was always

taught to work at a quick pace, complete the same duties repeatedly, and always follow authority

of upper management because that’s what we were expected to do or experience disciplinary

action. A restaurant is essentially a machine that is always run exactly as the management style

Godin describes in his presentation. You are expected to be compliant and get everything done as

efficiently as possible in order to maximize profits for the establishment. Godin specifically

describes managers as individuals who are known to make everyone do what they are told to do,

crank everything out as fast as possible, and make it so that everyone is afraid of making

mistakes. I further was able to compare and understand Godin’s speech because I worked in an

establishment where I was trained to become a manager where I then ended up repeating the
same duties and policies as was imposed onto myself under them to ensure the general manager

above me wouldn’t be displeased. Time and time again I have worked within and observed

restaurants and bars fail. After listening to Godin’s presentation, I assume it is because of their

desire to repeat the same thing over and over again without change. As the world changes,

consumers demand creative new things to keep up with technology, attitudes, and changes. Since

the restaurants I worked in were run through management style instead of leadership style, they

eventually failed because as Godin explained, managers don’t understand how to move forward.

Godin’s presentation unquestionably changed how I thought about leadership vs

management. I never gave much thought to the strong difference between the two positions, but

he gave very strong examples that I agree with. He makes a good argument about how

management is not how most organizations should be run if they are to be successful. It’s just a

continuous cycle of repeated hard work overtime that isn’t open to possibility or change. He

explains how managers exert control to invoke fear in those under them making mistakes seem

unacceptable. Godin talks about how managers tend to make the quality mistake, always doing

what they are supposed to do, trying to make sure something is right every time. I believe he is

correct; this won’t get an organization anywhere over a long period of time. They should be

using leadership methods such as taking risks, making mistakes, and being okay with messing up

so you can find other ways to fix the issues.

I think it is important for a leader to “write their own story”, as Godin explains in his

video. If you look at leaders such as Elon Musk, Steve jobs, Jeff Bezos, and Zig Ziglar, they

embody leaders because they weren’t afraid to think outside the box or care what other people

think about them expressing their ideas. They are not only visionaries as leaders but also

trendsetters. As the video also mentions, if an organization has a good leader who can use their
empathy to be able to think through the eyes of other people and imagine what they might want,

how they can connect, then a leader can be very successful. By using their resources to design

their own path, solve their own problems, and be okay with being wrong along the way but also

trying to learn how to fix it then this will get other people to be interested enough to want to be

led by them voluntarily.