Leadership Vs Management - The Debate Continues!
The debate continues as to the difference between leadership and management. This article focuses on why that debate is so important.
It has been ten years since the Karpin Committee released its much-heralded 'Karpin Report' - the report of the Industry Task Force on Management Reform in Australia. The Committee spent its $3 million budget, published 27 reports and made 28 recommendations. The report, you may recall, emphasised the urgent need to upgrade the skills of Australian leadership and management.
Whilst there has been an increase in the discussion and the rhetoric concerning leadership and management competencies, the jury is still out as far as evidence pointing to any major improvement where leadership and management is concerned.
Firstly, we need to look at the terms and try to make some distinctions between leadership and management.
Close to one thousand managers throughout Australia and New Zealand have participated in a particular leadership and management program.
As part of the prework required by managers undertaking the eight day program, participants are asked to list all their activities for the week prior to the course under the headings of:
- what they do as a leader;
- what they do as a manager; and
- what they do as an operator/technician.
When participants understand the three distinct roles, they are often jolted by the spread of activities, which, on average, looks like this –
Leader 0-10%, Manager 30-40%, Operator/Technician 60%+
What do these terms mean?
LEADING: The essence of leadership is concerned with creating the conditions that encourage others to follow. Specifically, creating:
- A shared understanding of the environment.
- A shared vision of where we are going.
- A shared set of organisational values.
- A shared feeling of power.
Key words: vision, direction, values, empower
MANAGING: While the leadership function is ‘big picture’ the management function has a narrower focus. Leavitt neatly described leadership, as ‘pathfinding’ while management was ‘pathminding’.
Management is situational and involves:
- getting things done (task focus)
- through people (relationship focus)
Key words: plan, organise, control (Task) and/or encourage, develop, people (Relationship)
OPERATING: Operating involves performing operator/technician functions that do not fall within the role of either leading or managing.
Key words: do, measure, advise
Interestingly enough, the spread of time spent in each of the three roles does not appear to alter noticeably whether the course participants are first line, middle or indeed senior managers!
The relatively tiny amount of time being spent by managers in leadership activities, quite often nil in many cases, raises two critical questions:
- Why is it so important for those in management positions to be consistently demonstrating good leadership?
And
- Why is it that so many managers seemingly don’t display a great deal of leadership at all?
- Why is leadership so important?
There is enough evidence, almost impossible to refute, that ‘transformational’ or enlightened leadership, together with the application of effective management styles and techniques will bring about, clear, specific and measurable organisational improvement.
Every survey, research, and study, from the Australian Business Leader Survey (ABSL) of 2001, the Leadership Employment and Direction Research (LEAD 2000), Built To Last studies, Good to Great studies and the First XI research by Mt Eliza Business School all point to the same results which tell us that there really is a direct correlation between good leadership and overall organisational effectiveness.
In our times of great change, leadership application takes on even more significance.
The need for “pathfinding” has never been greater considering the turbulence our workplaces are experiencing and will continue to experience!
Also history tells us that it is leadership which enables organisations to endure over time. Note the conclusions drawn by Charles Handy after extensive research conducted on organisations, which have lasted for over a century.
THE NOT SO SECRET, SECRETS OF ENDURING ORGANISATIONS
"To live that long (centuries) however you have to deserve it. Most don't and quite properly die or get absorbed into something bigger and better. Because to live that long you have to know not only what you stand for, to be sure of your central values and your reason for existing, but also to change constantly what you do and how you do it, to grow better although not necessarily bigger, and to have a continuing passion for your work - all exactly as documented by the research into long-lasting companies."
“The Hungry Spirit”, Charles Handy, Arrow Books Limited, 1997 |
The reader will note that the highlighted points in the above quote are all brought about by leadership activities!
- Why do so few managers seemingly display good leadership?
At the macro level I feel that the leadership development agenda has been largely swamped by the bureaucratic and mostly ineffectual ‘competency based’ training movement, which has spawned a plethora of certification, red tape and ‘accreditation’ of both the courses and the providers. None of this has changed what has always been the case – there were good and bad courses delivered prior to 1995 and there are good and bad courses being delivered now! (This is not the first time improvement efforts have been hijacked by earnest people. Remember the Quality Accreditation Movement-Australian Standards, ISO etc. which almost totally took over and overwhelmed the Quality Improvement Movement, TQC, TQM, SPC etc. of the preceding years! Hijacking of movements is alive and well in the business world as it is in other forms of society!)
At the organisational level, the reasons for little or no improvement in leadership would appear to be even more compelling. Here is what I believe to be the reasons people in responsible positions don’t always display good leadership skills.
- Do managers know what to do?
A number of managers simply don’t know what to do in the area of leadership. Many participants have been promoted into their positions and the organisations obligation to provide them with relevant leadership skills is often an afterthought. (Many job descriptions don’t even mention the leadership aspects of the job!)
- Do managers know how to do it?
Then there are the managers, often coming in with university or other post secondary qualifications who might know what is to be done in the leadership arena but don’t know how to do it. Some (not all of course) of the worst people managers I have seen have MBAs. Understanding Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is interesting but it doesn’t necessarily skill managers in communicating effectively and creating the conditions described in this article, which is what they really need to be effective leaders.
- Does the organisation support good leadership?
Most importantly there is usually no system in place, which recognises, reinforces, supports or rewards that application of good leadership techniques.
Whilst we have KPIs and other measures for just about everything else in the workplace there are still only a few enlightened organisations that have developed relevant leadership models that emphasise not only what has to be achieved but also how managers should behave in achieving their own, or their team’s outputs.
Only a relatively small number of organisations I have observed in over 28 years of HR management and consultancy use the Performance Management System to measure and reward effective leadership. (I know the good ones do but I believe they are in the minority).
People do what they are rewarded for doing and the Performance Management System, properly applied, is the most effective way of institutionalising good leadership.
And of course it must start at the very top of the organisation and work its way through the whole system.
The good old goldfish-polishing story highlights the point.
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GOLDFISH POLISHING
Once upon a time, there was a goldfish.
It was an unhappy little fish. It was all green and slimy, with algae trailing from its fins, and its gills as it moped about in its fishpond.
Then one day, a Very Concerned Person came along and took the goldfish out of the pond. The Very Concerned Person polished up the goldfish, so that it was all bright and shiny.
Happy little goldfish.
The goldfish became highly motivated to show the world what a really shiny goldfish could do. It couldn’t wait to get back into the pond to tell all the other goldfish.
But, sadly, when it was put back into the pond, the slime and algae quickly grew back over its scales and its fins and its gills.
After a couple of days back in the pond, it was impossible to tell that the Very Concerned Person had ever polished the goldfish.
For goldfish, read ‘trainee’.
For Very Concerned Person, read ‘trainer’.
And for fishpond, try, ‘organisation.’
Those of us who are trainers, or who have tried to bring about organisational improvement by various training activities, have spent a lot of time polishing goldfish.
Dennis Pratt: How Shiny is your Goldfish? |
The challenge is for organisations to support the application of leadership skills back in the workplace (The goldfish bowl).
Now for the good news!
People at all levels in organisations know that both good leadership and good management are needed in order for that organisation to succeed. When either enlightened leadership or effective management is absent the organisation and the people will surely suffer.
The really good news is that both leadership and management skills can be learnt. Daniel Goleman of Emotional Intelligence fame assures us that all of the competencies of Emotional Intelligence can be acquired by leaders and managers. As can most other leadership and management competencies.
My own experiences with hundreds of participants of the 8 day Leadership At Work Program shows how participants can, and do, show measurable improvements in their leadership and management as measured by their team members, peers and bosses.
What managers really need are simply:
PRACTICAL TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES, IMMEDIATELY APPLICABLE TO THEIR WORKPLACE, TO HELP THEM IMPROVE IN THEIR LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT ABILITIES
and
A SYSTEM, WHICH CONSTANTLY MEASURES, SUPPORTS, REINFORCES AND REWARDS THE APPLICATION OF THESE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES.
Whilst this is really no more than common sense the question is - ‘Is it common practice?’
Robert Re is a consultant specialising in personal and organisational development and has 28 years experience in HR Management and Consulting. He has conducted his eight-day Leadership At Work Development Program for approximately 1,000 managers throughout Australia and New Zealand. He has recently published his book 'Leadership At Work - Letting the Apes Go Free'. Visit his web site at: www.robertjre.com.au
First published: 18 May 2006.
Last updated: 19 May 2006.