A serious gap in leadership effectiveness exists, according to a just released survey by Aon Hewitt.
While
participants from the 1,328 employers nationwide found that leaders
play a vital role in meeting business goals (56 percent), meeting
profitability targets (56 percent), delivering service (56 percent) and
retaining talent (44 percent), only 12 percent of respondents say their
leaders are extremely effective at meeting business goals. What’s more,
just 14 percent believe their leaders are extremely effective at meeting
profitability targets, 17 percent say the same holds true for
delivering service and 7 percent believe their leaders are extremely
effective at retaining talent.
Since mismanagement and
misappropriation of managers and leaders seems to be such a common event
at businesses today, it seems like an opportune time to revisit the difference between managers and leaders.
Leadership
comes with the territory when you own your own business or receive a
title. But being in a leadership position does not necessarily make you a
leader. Leadership experts say leaders vs. managers are two very
different characters, even though most small-business owners consider
them the same.
The Peter Principle states that “in a hierarchy
every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence”, meaning that
employees tend to be promoted until they reach a position at which they
cannot work competently. It was formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and
Raymond Hull in their 1969 book The Peter Principle. The
principle holds that within an organization, members are promoted so
long as they work competently. Eventually they are promoted to a
position, at which they are no longer competent, and there they remain,
being unable to earn further promotions, often times mucking things up.
Although The Peter Principle is often referred to in jest, there is
often truth in humor.
More often than not we see employees rising through the ranks from
entry-level employee to management, then management to leadership roles.
These titles are often rewards for extra effort or loyalty along with
success in the current position. But none of these achievements
justifies promotion to roles that these employees are ill-equipped to
undertake.
What then are the fundamental differences between leaders and managers?
According
to Warren Bennis, one of my favorite authorities on leadership,
“leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do
things right.” In that vein, a leader always has the full vision in his
sights and inspires the organization to follow. Leaders set the
com¬pany strategy. A leader sets the exam¬ple of how to work and live.
But most importantly, an effective leader is concerned beyond the
boundaries of self, and directs his or her energy to the very core of
the business – its team of employees. Bennis outlines four themes that
generate empowerment, camaraderie, and a sense of belonging. They are:
- People feel significant.
- Learning and competence matter.
- People feel part of the larger community.
- Work is exciting.
An equally important characteristic according to Ken Blanchard, best-selling author of The Leader Within,
is leaders “get honest, unfiltered feedback about how you are doing
from the people you lead.” He further states, ”You cannot effectively
lead if you do not know your own values.”
“Managing,”
on the other hand, implies structure, control, rules, deadlines and
efficiency, says Blanchard. A manager will dictate expectations and can
some¬times push, some¬times pull and some-times a mix¬ture of both.
Managers must have an understanding of the leader’s vision and share the
commitment to seek it.
That is not to say that a manager should
not exhibit some leadership qualities and to learn skills that define a
leader. If managers merely focus on the activities of the followers and
fail to engage them in a purpose, that manager will most likely lose
the interest of his followers. Loss of interest grows into loss of
motivation which can lead to lower productivity.
Ultimately, the
term manager typifies the more structured, controlled, analytical,
orderly, and rule-oriented end of the continuum, while the term leader
denotes a more experimental, visionary, flexible, and impassioned side.
Managers and leaders are not the same. They think differently
internally, and behave differently externally.