Paul Butler: Management Versus Leadership

Management Versus Leadership

BY PAUL BUTLER

SCVBJ Contributing Writer

We’re living in a time when people are attempting to change the meaning of long-held beliefs about what a word actually means. This caused me to consider two words which I am hearing increasing confusion on — management and leadership. Is management the same as leadership? Can the terms be used interchangeably?

A simple Google search causes confusion as they define management as: “the process of dealing with or controlling things or people.” It then gives an example of managing a herd of elks. Therein lies the problem — people aren’t elks. Google states that leadership is: “the action of leading a group of people or an organization.” I’m good with their definition of leadership.

I believe the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition aligns more with my experience and observations. Webster states that management is: “the conducting or supervising of something (such as a business)” and they define leadership in the same way Google does.

I’m a simple man from simple middleEngland and I like to simplify the seemingly complex. I believe the difference between management and leadership can be summarized in four words — manage things, lead people.

A HVAC system needs to be managed. A process or procedure needs to be managed. A budget needs to be managed. But the thing with things is they don’t think. When we’re dealing with human beings, we have to remind ourselves they’re four-dimensional — the body, the heart, the mind and the soul/spirit. People are open to being led if they trust us. Trust is the commodity that binds people together.

Trust is easy to say and hard to do. Trust is character, (who you are) and competence, (what you do). If you’re a good person and good at what you do, people are open to your influence. You may have implicit, informal influence or you may have explicit, formal influence because of your job title.

The late great coach John Wooden summarized his style of leadership well when he said, “I’d rather be out front with a banner than behind with a whip.” Coach makes a profound point there — managing people can be exhausting. If we’re constantly having to harass, cajole, monitor and persuade people, it can wear out our own engine.

Management is an industrial-age term — when the primary asset value of an organization was machines and capital. Human beings were necessary but dispensable. You perform, you get the carrot. You don’t perform, you get the stick.

We’re now living in what’s called the “knowledge-worker” age when people have much freer agency to take their talents wherever they feel most appreciated and where they can earn the highest rate of return for putting their proverbial shoulder to the plow. There is now a war for talent simply because the primary asset value of organizations has shifted to the people. It’s someone’s passion for their work, (the heart); their ideas, (the mind) and the desire to leave a legacy and make a difference in the world, (the spirit/soul) that is widening the gap between superior and mediocre regardless of entity-type.

Another way of looking at the difference between the two is that management appears to me to be more about control, whereas leadership is more about release. In leading others, we still hold people accountable in the ways agreed but we become more of a coach from the sidelines than a control-freak watching every move. People don’t like to be managed and they most certainly don’t want to be controlled.

I encourage you to take great care if you have formal explicit authority over people and you try to manage rather than lead. I’ve seen people exhaust themselves. I’ve seen workplace cultures become sub-optimal and I’ve observed organizations lack creativity and innovation in a rapidly changing industry because people are afraid of upsetting the boss.

As we head into a new year, I encourage you to keep it simple: manage things and lead people. Focus on being a person of high character and high competence. Use your explicit, formal authority to clear the path so that talented people can unleash their potential to the benefit of your customers, your colleagues, your investors and their careers.

Paul Butler is a Santa Clarita resident and a client partner with Newleaf Training and Development of Valencia. For questions or comments, email Butler at paul.butler@newleaftd.com. 