Are You A Manager Or A Leader?
April 24, 2008
Guest post by Tim Brownson of A Daring Adventure
If you employ people, manage people or intend to do either in the future what are your plans to be great at what you do?
I can remember several years ago after being taken on by a huge sales organization being taken into an office by my new manager. He hadn’t interviewed me for the job because he was new to the role and literally started the same day as I did, so we’d never even met. He sat me down and the first question he posed me was “Tim, how do you like to be managed?” After I picked myself up of the floor closed my gaping jaw and recovered the ability to speak I gave him my answer. “I like to be hands-off most of the time and I respond to encouragement and not threats. To say I was somewhat cynical about whether he would actually take any of that onboard would be like saying Britney Spears isn’t quite on her ‘A’ game at the moment. I was skeptical, dubious and suspicious of any manager asking ME how I wanted handling. Surely this was a cunning ruse to get me to do something I didn’t want to do, like go out and actually visit clients or something else equally sinister.
Over the following months however, he proved good to his word by treating me exactly the way I wanted to be treated. He was encouraging when I was successful and helpful and supportive when I had barren spells. He made me believe that he wanted to see me succeed as much as I did, and he did that because it was true. In fact he helped me to smash every sales target that was put in front of me.
What he managed to do was get to know me. Not my performance stats, what my time keeping was like and whether I could hold a sales meeting, but what I liked to do, what motivated me and what engaged me. He knew me as a person not a sales person and he understood my values and what really made me tick. He knew that a volley of abuse or threat of objectives would have little beneficial effect on me, so he didn’t bother resorting to those tactics. I now look back on him as one of the 2 best people I ever worked for and he remains a friend many years later.
I don’t like the title manager. I held it for a number of years and at the time thought it looked cool on my business cards, but it was purely an ego thing. The word itself manage, gives off a vibe of organizing or worse still, coping. It’s not a word that inspires, not in the same way that being a leader does.
The fact is that great managers are also great leaders. They get the people that work for them to feel like they are working with them. They get to know the people directly under them as individuals and they manage the person according to their values and personality. Everybody is different and if I tried to operate as a Life Coach by having a regimented script and treating everybody the same way, I wouldn’t have many clients.
Imagine if you were given a managers post but instead of saying manager it said Sales Leader or Office Leader on your business cards and all the other relevant paraphernalia. What difference do you think that would make to how you viewed your roll within the organization? How would it change the expectations of those around you? Suddenly you’re not there to manage you’re there to lead people, how cool would that be?
If you want to really make a difference (I know, I’ve slipped into cliché corner but I don’t know how else to describe it) at what you do, start to be a leader. It doesn’t matter if you don’t actually have the title yet, that will come when others recognize your abilities. Lead by being solution driven rather than problem orientated, lead by volunteering for stuff you’d rather not do, lead by helping others, lead by sharing information, lead by smiling when things get tough, lead by listening, lead by asking questions and most of all lead by being the person that you aspire to be.
Tim Brownson is a UK born Life Coach and NLP Master Practitioner now living in Orlando, Florida. He coaches people one-to-one either face-to-face or via the telephone. If you have enjoyed this article you can read his blog at A Daring Adventure.
Comments
13 Responses to “Are You A Manager Or A Leader?”
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Hi Tim (and Catherine too),
Such a thought provoking post.
Tim, like you, I like to be left alone to do my job. I don’t react well to being yelled at, degraded or humiliated.
I like to manage/lead the same way, and make myself available for questions or assistance.
My husband is great that way too. He’s often the first one to jump in a ditch to lay pipe. When the employees see that, they are often quick to jump in with him, They know there’s nothing he will ask them to do that he won’t do himself….no matter how dirty the job.
If a boss takes time to learn a little about their employees, productivity will definitely increase.
Tim, I’m headed over to check out your blog too.
Great guest post!
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..Blogging – Year One – Lesson Seven
Oooops! The links to Tim’s blog aren’t working.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..Blogging – Year One – Lesson Seven
Hi Barbara – Thanks for letting me know. I’ve fixed them – hopefully they’ll stay fixed now. You should check out Tim’s blog – it’s great.
Tim,
I like this post (thanks for having Tim here, Cath). I always had a simple view on this, as the common name for managers where I work is “leader”.
But I view a leader as someone I would follow to the ends of the earth. Someone I would follow into mortal combat. I would not do that for most managers. But I know a few leaders.
Another way of thinking about it is this (I must have been a soldier in a former life) – a leader would be able to trust his or her men in the field… many managers would be shot in the back not long after going into enemy territory
It may seem a bit harsh, but it’s what I believe. In a real world sense, leaders inspire people even when they are absent. People goof off when the manager is away…
Brett Legree’s last blog post..why blogging for profit is like collecting underpants.
Hi Tim – Thanks very much for this interesting post. It’s definitely important to discover how people like to be managed. When I first set out, I made the mistake of assuming everyone would like to be managed in the way I liked to be managed myself.
That was a huge mistake and I eventually began to realise that different personalities want different things in the workplace.
Many managers I’ve met are appalling leaders, but would I be correct in guessing that they can be trained to lead?
Hi Brett – That is a good point. Maybe companies should train their managers in combat zones. I can think of a few people who’d wind up getting shot. I wonder what would happen to Bush, if he was sent to fight in Iraq?
Hi Cath,
As I said, it sounds harsh but for me personally being likable goes a long way.
Three years ago, we got a new Vice President. In his first talk to us, and in his first breath, he said, “I don’t care if you don’t like me”.
Well, true enough, it wasn’t his job to get us to like him. But, first impressions are lasting for a lot of folks, and a lot of folks had a negative impression of him from the get go.
Guess what? He is leaving next week, and we are still here…
Brett Legree’s last blog post..why blogging for profit is like collecting underpants.
It’s a good point. “Managing” feels like “Restricting” to me.
You have to trust people to get on with their job. If you set clear goals and objectives, and have systems to measure them then management is not needed.
That frees you up to lead.
I think it’s also important to encourage leadership in others. Let people bring ideas to the table. And encourage them when they do.
They feel valued, and the ideas they come up with can be valuable too.
Ian Denny’s last blog post..This Blogging Lark Is Hard – How Do You Cope When Other Stuff Gets In The Way?
Hi Brett – He used a bad choice of words. It would give you the impression straight away that there was some reason not to like him. I have worked with people who have said things like that and they’ve usually wound up being complete pricks.
Hi Ian – That is a good point. When you work somewhere that doesn’t encourage your input, or completely ignores any ideas you put forward, it makes you care about the company a whole heap less.
Cath Lawson’s last blog post..Are You A Manager Or A Leader?
Brett, that’s brilliant. I had a speech from a manager once (incidently THE worst I’ve ever had) that started off with “I don’t care if you like me, but you will respect me). In actual fact that opposite turned out to be true. I quite liked the guy but he was a bumbling idiot. You guy sounds like he’d watched Glengary Glenn Ross once too often!
Ian that’s true, delegation liberates and empowers people. Some will take the piss quite frankly, but more will rise to the challenge. Holding onto power shows a lack of self-confidence and immaturity.
Cath I’m not sure about that. I think maybe if they WANT to be trained and believe they need to be, then they can. The problem can be getting them to accept they are terrible leaders as most people don’t like that kind of feedback! The weird thing is that most people think if they were a good sales person then they would make a good sales manager and that transfers across all industries. I’ve never understood that logic because it’s often a completely different skill set that is required.
Barbara, sounds like your hubby is the kind of person I’d want to work for, but on the other hand, I’m not jumping into any ditches and laying pipes
Tim Brownson’s last blog post..How To Avoid a Mid (or quarter) Life Crisis
@Cath and Tim,
You are both right in a funny way – he did use the wrong choice of words, which gave a bad first impression. But you know what, I quite liked the guy in the end, and I’m sort of sad to see him go, because his replacement is just a “yes man” and a bit of a wet fish.
@Cath,
Thanks again for the mention this week, sorry I didn’t leave more words there… breakfast time at my house is chaos defined
Brett Legree’s last blog post..do what you love, and the underpants will follow.
[...] Lawson’s blog, there was an excellent guest post by Tim Brownson discussing whether or not one is a leader or one is a follower. It was a well written article and because of it I subscribed to his [...]
@ Tim – that is a good point. And I guess it’s one of the hazards of promoting from within an organisation.
@ Brett – you’re welcome. I loved the post.
[...] guessing he will eventually. He’s written some excellent guest posts, including this one: Are You A Manager Or A Leader? If I was planning to do a guest posting campaign myself, I think [...]