About every two weeks a post appears on my LinkedIn feed, the topic is always related to becoming an effective or inspirational leader. The photo attached is a cartoon that depicts the “boss” on the left, using his employee as a stick and holding them in a way that appears that the boss is throwing the employee on to the work essentially making it appear as though the boss is “beating” the work out of the employee. The right side has a leader who is depicted in a softer fashion with people lined up to follow. The message always the same, don’t be a bad boss be an inspiring leader. I cringe every time. In order to drive a more effective and productive work for our organization’s we need to shift away from this polarity in thinking; that you are either a boss/manager who is a hinderance to performance who micromanages and creates more roadblocks than they remove OR you are a leader who is shining the light of possibility and change that people are lined up to follow. Management and leadership are not mutually exclusive.
Far too often we put the idea of becoming a “leader” on a pedestal and dismiss the critical reality of effectively fulfilling the duties of management. The foundation of being a strong manager is what builds trust among employees and creates a desire for them to follow you through departmental and organizational changes and transitions you from a manager to leader in their eyes. On the flip side, as people climb the ranks of the organization and get titles that are higher and higher up the hierarchy the duties of management are often dropped in exchange for leadership responsibilities – this is slippery slope for those who retain direct reports and retain the role of a manager. You begin to hear frustrations start to arise surrounding organizational “leadership”, most concentrated frustration coming from their direct reports. Why? The fundamentals of management get lost due to the increasing responsibilities and focus shifts into strategy and forecasting. Does the way someone at a higher level need to manage shift? Of course it does! However, fundamentals remain the same. When they are lost, questions about professional development surface more frequently, stresses about being overcapacity start bubbling, accountabilities begin to dissolve, ego starts to trump process and in general employees can start to feel disconnected or unmotivated in their role. Employees have fundamental needs that must be met in order to perform at their highest level, this includes having structured support from their managers – and if the CEO has a direct report, even she is a manager.
Management doesn’t have to be done in the archaic way it is often thought about; clock watching, micromanaging, meeting setting, dictating needs, scrutinizing PTO requests, pushing up the corporate ladder at the employees’ expense. That perception and narrative that surfaces so often of management needs to change. Effective management/good managers are an accelerator of high performance to drive organizational outcomes. When management is done in an authentic and intentional way with meaning injected in to it and recognizes each employee on their team as an individual with unique personal situations, unique motivators and unique reasons for working... it can change lives for employees and can help business boom.
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