Thursday, August 21, 2014

The Leadership and Management Hats



Many activities fall under both leadership and management. You may conduct a meeting both as a leader and a manager. You may set goals, make decisions, mete out discipline, and measure progress while wearing both hats. 

The classic definition, reportedly from Peter Drucker although Warren Bennis also used it, is that managers do things right and leaders do the right thing. Although helpful, definitions can miss the blur and distract people from the main goal which is one of effectiveness. Organizations don't care if you juggle penguins or speak Latin if doing so makes you effective.

We fulfill multiple roles. That often requires us to wear more than one hat at the same time.

2 comments:

Wally Bock said...

Drucker referred to the activities, management and leadership (he left out supervision). It was Bennis in his classic book Leaders who stopped talking about tasks, what people do, and turned them into types of people, with leaders (in his classic comparison) clearly superior to managers. I think that might be one that Bennis would have liked to get back.

Michael Wade said...

Wally,

You're correct. As much as I enjoyed Bennis' book, I had the same feeling. It contributed to the leadership/management caste system school of thought.

Michael