Comments on: On management and leadership

By: Michele Nardelli

Michele Nardelli — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:07:32 +0000

Fascinating – Leadership and Management often seem at odds to me because one serves a vision, a notion of what could be, an aspiration, and one serves an organisation and a structure. To some extent it is organisational culture that will dictate how much leadership is nurtured in the ranks or how much management is present. One delivers functioning organisations which are accountable and one delivers dynamic organisations. But a bit like artists I think you can educate people to have the technical ability to be leaders but really powerful inspirational leaders have it in them…

By: Helene

Helene — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:49:35 +0000

I’ve been interested in this difference two for quite some time. To me it boils down to this.

Management controls. Leadership on the other hand, empowers.

http://www.librarybytes.com/2006/09/on-control-empowerment.html

By: Stephen Collins

Stephen Collins — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:16:44 +0000

@DA – my initial statement, that “true leadership is innate”, is something I stand by. As with management, there are skills that can be learned, practiced and executed; and very well at that.

However, the telling word here is “true”. My contention is that in talking about “true leaders”, I’m talking about only the very best – those that can and do lead completely naturally. These are the born leaders.

Trained leaders can be very, very good. But the naturals are the ones that we remember.

Of course, I don’t believe for one moment that my position is the one true view. Having experienced people like you come here and put a counter position is what makes discussing this stuff worthwhile.

By: d a morton

d a morton — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:23:42 +0000

I was so excited to find someone who gets it. Managers are generally not leaders. Leaders don’t have to be manafers. I was “with you” right up until the end. That is where the agreement crashed and burned. As one who coaches in leadership, I can assure you that it is definitely a learned skill. While some appear to come about the ability to lead naturally, they don’t. They generally could not tell you what about them makes them a good leader. They just know that it works. There is a process to becoming a leader. As a matter of fact my latest two blog entries outline the process. I hope you can visit: http://www.hdleadership.blogspot.com

By: Renai LeMay

Renai LeMay — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:33:46 +0000

I think leadership can also be learnt Renai

By: Paul Roberts

Paul Roberts — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:23:43 +0000

So good to read your comment Rachel. Creative conversation (or contructive confrontation) is hugely beneficial to strategic thinking but so rear in organisational practice. The Participative Web offers rich opportunity to get around organisational barriers.

By: Rachel Happe

Rachel Happe — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:41:42 +0000

Hi Stephen -

Great post. I’m not sure where I come out on the managers vs. leaders debate but what I have observed having worked with so many types of companies is that organizations need both visionaries and process people…and that almost always creates tension. That tension, however, and the constant negotiation between what is needed to be successful today and what is needed to be successful in the long term is vital to long term success.

The two things that are critical – self knowledge and the ability to seek out and accept constructive confrontation. Both of those skills are very, very rare. Most of the people I’ve worked with over the years don’t want to admit any limitations (and therefore can’t really identify what they are good at) and most people cringe at confrontation because they assume it has to be aggressive or personal… instead of just seeing it as a difference of approach that needs to be negotiated.

Very interesting conversation though. Interested in hearing more about what you are studying!

By: Michael Harmer

Michael Harmer — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:55:24 +0000

Nice post – I’ve always thought that the difference is that: a leader helps people decide to do something they otherwise wouldn’t have done and a manager cajoles/orders/nags/uses authority to do the same.

By: Lee White

Lee White — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:21:48 +0000

Trib

Check out Rachel Happe’s post today. Eerily similar topic. Do you guys have a psychic link?

http://www.thesocialorganization.com/2008/07/lead-from-the-back.html

Lee

By: Stephen Collins

Stephen Collins — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:32:24 +0000

@Jason – absolutely!

Managers everywhere ought rightly to be leaders. And yes, it is often a struggle that managers fail to rise to.

That said, it is often the case that a manager desires deeply to be a good leader for those around them and to whom they bear management responsibility. What happens though, is that the manager is not supported in doing so by their own management, who is equally failing to lead.

In terms of my statement about learned and innate skills, that’s largely an observation. I’ve encountered few true leaders who weren’t “naturals”, even if some of the skills of leadership had been taught to them. Management though, is definitely a skill set that can be taught. Whether it’s taught, learned or practiced well is entirely another matter.