It’s
the foremost law; people tolerate being managed, but love being led. First,
consider how often you have heard people complaining to each other about
management. One might expect staff to rebel against poor management, but they
rarely do so. One strident employee may say, ‘We’ll tell them.’ But if he opens his mouth to complain, and
then looks over his shoulder for support, suddenly he finds himself standing
alone. People often complain to each other about their manager but open mutiny
is almost unheard of. This is probably the main reason why so many incompetent
managers continue to have free rein to make people’s life at work so
disagreeable. Working for an inept manager can be very unpleasant. It can also
be very frustrating because his or her incompetence holds back your own
performance. You may even appear to be responsible for his or her mistakes,
making you look foolish in front of clients, suppliers or co-workers.
Working
for a manager of only average ability is not much better, yet people tolerate
this and get on with their job. When the manager is fully competent, then
people respond by doing a competent job. Good management elicits competent
performance because people know what to do, by when and to what standard of
performance. And their personal effort is coordinated with the work of those
around them. But is that good enough?Consider how the following descriptors
highlight the essential difference between management and leadership at work:
Manage:
Run, Direct, Administer, Supervise, Deal with, Handle, Control.
Lead:
Guide, Show the way, Direct, Pilot, Escort, Go In Front, Go Ahead, Conduct
Management
without leadership produces only a competent performance because, although the
manager organizes the team efficiently, the team is not motivated to give their
very best. Add leadership and now people feel inspired to try harder.
Performance lifts to much higher levels. When people work for a good leader
they feel encouraged, supported and believed in. They want to contribute all
that they are capable of, and they feel positive about the future. They feel
less controlled, more encouraged. This empowering experience increases team
enthusiasm and energy levels and helps create an expectation that the team will
do well. But leadership alone is not enough. Leadership without management will
fail through a lack of coordinated direction. Management and leadership
together spark off the highest levels of achievement. Both leader and team
enjoy the buzz they feel from achieving things together, which is why people
love to work for a first-rate leader. The best leaders do more than merely
organize and control their people. Either through instinct, or by intelligent
thought, they know how
to handle each situation so that the ordinary people around them produce
extraordinary results.
If
you have been fortunate enough to work for one of these leaders, you will
remember how you felt motivated to go the extra mile and give your best. You
will have found working with them more enjoyable, not necessarily fun-filled
days, but fulfilling because you achieved so much, which was extremely
satisfying. When working for this person you felt motivated and confident of
your success. Effective leaders do not
work extra hard. In fact, they often appear more relaxed and easy-going, but they
are very active people setting the agenda through being intelligently
proactive, and intelligently reacting to events and people issues as they
occur.
The
quickest way to learn leadership is on the job and the following 39 essential
truths provide a resource to help you decide when to be proactive or reactive,
on which issues and how to go about it.
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