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8 LEADING AND MANAGING

The men of Issachar understood the times and knew what Israel should do. 1 Chronicles 12:32

The difference between leaders and managers

Indeed, an interesting trend in management literature has been the redefined categories of leader and manager. There are some big differences between the archetypal processdriven manager and iconic visionary leader. The Oxford Dictionary defines a manager as: A person controlling or administering a business.1 A leader is defined as: A person who causes others to go with him[/her], by guiding and showing the way; guides by persuasion and argument.2 Some of the great thinkers and writers on leadership add clarity to the discussion:
Lead is from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning a road, a way, a path. Its knowing what the next step is. Managing is from the Latin, manus, a hand. Its about handling, and is closely linked with the idea of machines and came to prominence in the 19th century, as engineers and accountants emerged to run what had previously been entrepreneurial businesses. Managers can be appointed; leaders must be ratified in the hearts and the minds of those who work for them. John Adair, author of books on business leadership

Just as workplace fashions and office technology have changed over the decades, so to have management styles. The leader as authority figure that the Boomers first experienced had shifted by the time Generation X entered the workplace. The 1980s ushered in author and management expert Ken Blanchards situational leader who would respond to the team and the situation. The shift from leader as commander to leader as collaborator gained momentum in the 1990s as author and psychologist Daniel Goleman developed his EQ (emotional intelligence quotient) tools. Managers recognised that staff did not respond to a wholly positional leader, but to a relational one. And so the shift from leadership selection based on IQ (intelligence quotient) to EQ began.This was a time of change from the outcome-driven, authoritarian manager to the team-focused, authentic leader. This momentum has grown as the Gen Y-ers have joined the workforce. Such an empowered, options-rich generation are inspired by leaders who consult, involve and coach, not by managers who dictate and delegate from afar.

As do practitioners:
Leadership is often confused with management. As I see it, leadership revolves around vision, ideas, direction, and has more to do with inspiring people as to direction and goals than with day-to-day implementation. One cant lead unless one can leverage more than his own capabilities.You have to be capable of inspiring other people to do things without actually sitting on top of them with a checklist. John Sculley, partner in Sculley Brothers and former CEO of Apple

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Heres a snapshot summary of the differences between managers and leaders taken from our research and reviews:
Table 8.1 Managers versus leaders

Managers Administrative Focus on policies & procedures IQ & technical skills Systems structured Rules based Control Short term Provide answers Who & when Bottom line Recruit Positional Accept Do things right

Leaders Innovate Focus on people & teams EQ & people skills Vision driven Values based Trust Long term Ask big questions Why & how Triple bottom line Train Relational Challenge Do the right things

The biggest difference is not one of practice but priorities. Leaders and managers often have the same responsibilities, but very different starting points.
Meaning > Mission (Why) Team > Task (What) Relational > Positional (How)

When it comes to ones raison dtre the why of the role the differences between the two become clear. The manager starts with the mission: Give me a mission and I will achieve my reason for being by its accomplishment.

Ever on task, the manager achieves meaning by doing. The leader, however, takes a few steps back from the mission or task and asks some meaning or purpose questions: Why do we as an organisation exist? Who are our customers and our stakeholders? How can we make a difference for all our stakeholders? In other words, the leaders dont jump straight in to answering questions first they ask a few. Leaders focus on the big picture and the long term, not just the immediate and the urgent. Lets be clear: leaders get to the mission and the task it is just that they dont start there. It is similar when it comes to the what we do. Managers begin with the task and will even recruit the team based on the task. They are truly task-driven compared to the leader who is people-centred. To the leader, task matters but it is accomplished with the team rather than through the team. Leaders talk people and teams rather than human resources and talent. With a long-term view of their role, they train and inspire their people to achieve and accomplish tasks first. It is easy to spot the differences in an outdoor team-building task. When approaching a new scenario, the managers look at the equipment and count the ropes and planks, while the leaders gather the team in a huddle to gauge morale and discover specialist skills. And how do they do it? Leaders rely on their relational skills, not positional ranks, as today people respond better to emotional rather than rational appeals. Highlighting this, scientists have been tracking climate change for the last 20 years, yet it has only been in the last 20 months that the climate-change message has got traction in the community. One reason for this is that while ever the message was a rational, statistical one, it remained limited to the scientific

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community. However, the moment Al Gores documentary An Inconvenient Truth was viewed en masse, the message was imparted visually. Pictures of icebergs melting and sea levels rising engaged the community viscerally, which no scientific papers could ever do. It moved the debate from a rational argument to an emotional one. Al Gore connected with hearts and not just heads ironically something he could not quite do when running for president. For any leader it is about connecting relationally and not just cognitively. Structures are secondary to the teams and the dynamics people follow them because people trust and respect them. Rank is secondary to the relationship. In the pragmatic words of leadership expert John Maxwell: If
Table 8.2 Famous leaders who influenced across the generations

Builders Political Economic Winston Churchill Walt Disney (childrens animated films)

Boomers John F Kennedy Lee Iacocca (Ford/ Chrysler)

X-ers Nelson Mandela Oprah Winfrey (television personality)

Y-ers Barack Obama Heidi Middleton & Sarah-Jane Clark (Sass & Bide fashion label) Robert Mugabe Paul David Hewson (Bono) Cate Blanchett Benedict XVI

youre leading and no ones following youre just out for a walk.3 The right leadership style will not only assist with effective work outcomes it will also help with Gen Y retention. Our analysis of the causes of employee turnover shows the central role that good leadership plays in employee retention. Specifically, 42 per cent of Gen Y-ers surveyed reported that poor management and leadership was the main reason for leaving their previous role.4 Gen Y-ers do not respond well to hierarchical leadership structures. Figure 8.1 represents the traditional top-down leadership model. The chain of command is represented by the arrows which all point one way and the departments are pictured as separate silos. The leader has been promoted from one of these departments and while the leader has the authority, they dont have the cross-functional experience. Unlike older generations, the respect of Gen Y is not gained through age or rank alone. Even in their primary
Figure 8.1 20th-century leadership command and control

Infamous

Joseph Stalin

Fidel Castro

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini Mother Teresa of Calcutta Stephen Spielberg Dalai Lama

Social

Mohandas Gandhi Frank Sinatra Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Martin Luther King Jnr John Lennon Billy Graham

Cultural Religious

FINANCE

OPERATIONS

MARKETING

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years they were given leadership opportunities and encouraged to challenge and independently evaluate others decisions. In many ways they are Generation Why! As a result, Gen Y has brought new values to the workplace. Y-ers expect to be treated as equals, they expect to have choices and input into decision-making processes, expectations that run counter to hierarchical systems of leadership. Supporting this is the statistic that 97 per cent of Gen Y-ers value a leadership style that involves empowerment, consultation and partnership, and would leave if they did not get it.5 Figure 8.2 represents this flat leadership structure. The ideal manager is one who values communication and creates an environment of transparency and respect for staff. Their preferred leadership style is simply one that is more consensus than command, more participative than autocratic, and more flexible and organic than structured and hierarchical. Also, because todays young people have received support from parents and teachers longer than any other generation, they want a supportive leader, but not in an overly structured way. The following quote from Australian Etiquette, written in 1959, illustrates just how much the leadFigure 8.2 21st-century leadership collaboration and cooperation

ership structures have changed from the hierarchal or positional to the flatter or relational:
If an employee is summoned to the employers room, he must remain standing until his chief indicates a seat. At the conclusion of the interview he must leave as quietly as possible, closing the door gently after him. If a junior meets his employer in the lift or in the street he should bow but must not enter into conversation unless first addressed. If an employee has a need to send a letter to his chief he should commence it with the words Dear sir and conclude with the words Yours obediently.

Leadership and management styles

So what leadership and management styles work best?
Authoritarian

Style: The positional leader relying on rank and role Verdict: Might be acceptable in the military or in the 1950s but not today
Directing

L L

L L

L L

Style: Leader points the way from afar and delegates the tasks Verdict: Our young workers want guidance not gurus, mentoring not micromanagement. In fact, when asked what they admired most about older colleagues, X and Y participants in our survey on the generations at work selected the following above all other options: They are good mentors and I learn much from them.6

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Consulting

Style: Leader asks the questions and includes the team Verdict: A good approach. Gen Y has opinions and wants to voice them. In the same survey, we asked Gens X and Y participants what bothered them most about older workers. Of the five choices given to them, the majority of participants selected: They often stop fresh and innovative ideas from taking effect. 7
Involving

Style: The participative leader leading from within and leading by example Verdict: This generation loves a leader who empowers the team. In a study of Australian Gen Y-ers, being a good listener and leading by example were among the top five characteristics of effective leadership.8
Coaching

Verdict: This style is ideal for Gen Y. The leader as coach recognises that the positional approach which relies on rank and role is less effective today. Yet the other leadership extreme of an overly relational approach is equally inappropriate, in that it fails to give clear direction, frameworks and constructive feedback. Balance is the key. In the mid-ground the leader asks the questions and includes the team. The leader is participative leading from within and leading by example and so both directs and empowers the team. This style of leadership is not a positional role but more an influence relationship. It is more coach than commander. Figure 8.4 shows the traditional employment model: pour a lot of staff in the top in the knowledge that many will fall away but the best will eventually emerge. When the population structure mirrored this employment structure
Figure 8.4 20th-century employment model

Style: Leadership that is not a positional role but more an influence relationship
Figure 8.3 PERSONAL The positionalrelational continuum RELATIONAL

FUNNEL

TRANSFORMATIONAL

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Figure 8.5

21st-century employment model

FLUID

Move from knowing the way to showing the way instead of command and control leadership, Gen Y-ers respond to consensus and collaborative leadership. Adopt people-centred leadership when asked what qualities they value in leadership,Y-ers reported valuing leader honesty, reliability and loyalty. They desired leaders who were energetic and inspiring, who maintained a team focus. Move from IQ to EQ try to develop your emotional intelligence (EQ) and that of your leaders, as it is the dimension of leadership Generation Y best responds to. From looking at leading and managing the younger generations, we now move on to marketing and selling to them.

(a large supply of emerging workers) this model worked fine. But this is not the situation today or into the future. If we dont like our staff we cant simply get rid of them and reach into the labour market to grab another as discussed earlier, the full-time labour market is both ageing and shrinking. In the 21st century it is sometimes hard to know who is part of the organisation. The structure is fluid and the doors are open. Some are regular staff, others part-time, casual, contracted or employed purely for a project. Figure 8.5 also shows that, today, people may leave but they may return again. It employs with an expectation on function and current task and not on seniority and longevity. So how can employers and other leaders effectively guide Gen Y-ers? Below are some points to remember in leading this generation.

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