Leadership Goes Beyond Management
If you have completed the Alpha Programme you will have engaged with this topic at some length.
Our Note is only able to touch down on the topic to make the point that they are different, but both are valuable.
The greatest misunderstanding, and sometimes the purposeful misconstruing of these two social constructs is a prime reason why legacy leadership has become anything, yet nothing.
It seems to me that there are three major reasons for this misinterpretation by so-called leadership gurus, business schools, both popular and academic writers, and commentators in general.
- The first is to serve commercial interests. Calling something ‘leadership’ gets a better price, a higher rating, more readership, than ‘mere management’, even if what is sold, taught and written is management rather than leadership.
- The second reason leadership and management are conflated is that people are unwilling to devote enough time and thoughtfulness to untangle them.
- Thirdly, the afore-mentioned reasons have created a habit, a generally accepted sense that these two different social constructs, in terms of purpose, are the same.
By now you might be wondering (and should be):
Why is it important that Leadership and management be differentiated?
A facetious response would be for the same reason that my eyes and ears are important, and I do not care for them to be made the same, or to forfeit one for the other!
These two body system parts have different functions, even if they are both used for sensing.
Alpha Activists will know the argument that leadership emerged with the first people, our Human #1. Leadership as a human construct was developed to meet certain collective human (social) needs.
In the same way, management emerged.
Neither of these original forms are what we have today (mostly), but they do serve different purposes, and they thus have separate ways in which they each achieve their specific purpose.
So, asking the question about the purpose of these two functions is a handy starting point to understand that they are not the same.
Notwithstanding that point, that they are dissimilar, it is also a reality that Leadership and management complement each other. Both are needed for their specific purposes… eyes, ears, mom, dad…
The underlying purpose of Influential Leadership can be gleaned from the way we define it, as:
The application of Social Agency to influence and shape people’s lived lives and life trajectories for the better.
The implication is that we can choose to lead wherever we are, whoever we are and whatever our functions might be at home, school, play, business or government.
Thus, Leadership is not confined to business, or a position or a title—or to management!
And, the purpose is dynamic, it is about change for the better, for human betterment.
On the other hand, the way management is defined sets up its general purpose:[i]
Management is the process of administering and controlling the affairs of an organisation, irrespective of its nature, type, structure, or size. Management is an act of … maintaining an organisational environment wherein the members of the organisation [family, home, team, school, business, government] can work together, and achieve their objectives efficiently and effectively.
…it is concerned with optimally using 5M’s, i.e. men [people], machine, material, money and methods…
The opening line tells us what the purpose of management is—to administer and control resources, including people, to effectively meet the organisations objectives.
While Leadership and management are fundamentally different in so many ways and at many levels, their one common element is ‘people’.
Although for Leadership, people are at the centre as subject and object, for management, people tend to be just one of the tradeable resources.
In the infographic below I set out a typical situation that businesses face—a downturn in revenues.
This is both a management pressure point and a Leadership Moment.
Yes, managers must manage, but an Apex Skilled manager (one who is equipped with Influential Leadership capability) will treat the situation as a Leadership Moment.
At each decision point the primary filter will be people: the staff, other managers, clients and customers, shareholders and the community.
An Apex Skilled manager-leader thinks, considers and goes beyond the confines of administering the organisation’s resources.
Managers have organisational leverage by dint of their roles, from the CEO down to the junior ranks.
Because managers have leverage over people’s lives as a resource, it is imperative that they be equipped beyond their management skills to lead—to influence and shape lives for their better.
Leadership indeed goes beyond management.
Regards,
Colin @ Karoo
We Activate Apex Skills!
Leadership Weekly Note: 1824.290424
e: colind@karoo.world
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