Improve My Business

There are several key differences between being a manager and a leader. For people running their own business or acting as parts of a management structure in a larger business it is important to recognize the differences between managing and leading and use these different methods appropriately. The biggest difference between managing and leading is that managers push groups to achieve specific goals while leaders pull groups in a general direction, letting the group decide on the specific goals.

When you are managing a group you are looked at for direction and answers, you are the driving force or push behind your team. Managers are focused on individual contributions and making sure that everyone on the team is doing exactly what they need to be doing to achieve the specified goal. At critical junctures in the process the team will defer to the manager to steer them in the right direction. All major decisions are made by the manager of a team.

Leaders on the other hand let the team make their own decisions. Instead of pushing the team into specific solutions, a leader pulls the team toward the goal, letting the team figure out the best way to get there. As a leader your role is not to provide the answers but to facilitate the team in coming up with their own answers. Leaders are more concerned with the overall functioning of the team and the relations between team members then the individual tasks of each member of the team.

Clearly each of these styles has its place and it is important as a team lead to recognize when you need to manage your team and when you need to lead them. Typically as employees grow more accustomed to the business they need less management and more leading. As an employee grows comfortable with her daily tasks she no longer needs someone looking over her shoulder, however she does need someone motivating her and this is where a great leader will excel. On the other side new employees don’t need motivation and leadership as much as they need someone there telling them how to do their new job.

This is not to say that only new employees need management, or that experienced employees will always excel with great leadership. As a team lead it is up to you to figure out what the members of your team need from you, and typically this means walking a line somewhere in between managing and leading. At times it will be important to be the task master and manage the members of your team, however if you default to this mode you will stifle the creativity of your team members and will not be allowing them to achieve their best. So at time is it important to take on the role of the leader and let the team figure out the solution, again though it is important to not go too far in this direction. If left completely to their own devices employees may wind up off track or pursuing ideas that are not practical for the current situation, it is your job to step in and make sure this doesn’t happen.

I encourage you to take a look at your current management practices and skills and see where you fall, are you more of a manager or a leader, and then examine the effects this may be having on your team. Considering trying the opposite approach from how you typically interact with your team and see how they respond. It may be that some of your employees have been waiting for an opportunity to be more creative, or have needed more direction in the workplace. The important thing to remember is that, as a team lead, you need to always be monitoring your team members and tailoring your interactions with them to help them achieve their best. This is the true goal of any leader, whether she is managing or leading, she is always trying to bring out the best in those around her.

Technorati Tags: Business, communication, leadership, problem solving

Here’s a great post about how to influence your boss (and maybe get him/her to listen to your idea for improvement). More importantly, this can work equally well for personal interactions - so you can use it in all aspects of your life!
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/baldoni/2009/10/the_smart_way_to_influence_you.html

Technorati Tags: Business, communication, working smarter

How do we define great leaders? Whether you are hiring management, picking a team captain, or simply aspiring to be one yourself, it is important to have a good definition for what a great leader is. Without a clear definition, you do not have a clear goal or standard against which to measure people and your own progress. Many people think that they have a clear understanding of what makes a great leader and will simply say great leaders get great results. While this definition might be helpful in the hiring process, it hardly gives us a good target for improving ourselves as leaders. Saying “I wish to achieve great results so I can be a great leader” is like saying “I wish to be eight feet tall so I can be a great basketball player”; all the wishing in the world isn’t going to get you there.

So, as we attempt to improve ourselves as leaders, we need to first define better what it means to be a great leader and use that as a target. A starting point could be to pick a past or present great leader as a role model. This certainly gives us a better target then simply saying “I want to achieve great results”, but role models don’t necessarily make the best targets. Great leadership, it is pretty easy to see, comes in large part from authenticity. If you try to use other peoples’ methods, or champion a cause you do not truly believe in, the best you can achieve is mediocrity. To be truly great, you must be authentic to yourself and that authenticity will shine through. This is why looking at the actions, methods and tactics of past and present great leaders can be helpful; but trying to imitate them will not make you a great leader.

This is not to say we should completely ignore what other great leaders can teach us, we simply need to look at them in a broader category, rather than single them out as role models for our behavior. In other words, the value of looking at great leaders to define great leadership is not to look at any single individual, but to look at the class of great leaders as a whole, and identify what the common attributes amongst them are. You can find one groups’ take on what common attributes amongst great leaders are at http://www.leadershiplanding.com/en/leadership_attributes.htm. They define five attributes as the key features of great leadership. These five attributes are: Self-awareness, Bravery, Kindness, Innovation and Inspiration.

Pulling out attributes like this gives us a good definition of what makes a great leader. By using this list of attributes, we can determine with authority whether or not someone meets the definition of great leadership and, perhaps more importantly, we can identify leadership strengths and weakness in other leaders around us and in ourselves. Having a list of attributes in front of us when assessing great leadership, whether in hiring or for personal growth, allows us to set specific goals and evaluation criteria related to the attributes we have identified. Instead of simply wishing for great results, or trying to model our behavior based on someone regarded as great leader, we must identify the characteristics that make great leaders, and then cultivate those characteristics in ourselves to create an authentic brand of leadership based on the principles of greatness.

How do you define a great leader? What are the attributes you look for?

Technorati Tags: hiring, leadership, self-assessment