Managing vs. Leading: Does It Matter?

Many Leadership writers have tackled the topic of Management vs. Leadership. Most, though certainly not all, see them as two distinct disciplines. A CEO I sat with recently told me that while they are different, he believes that successful executives develop strong capabilities in both areas.  I suppose he's right to a certain extent, but it seems to me that I see a far greater void in skilled LEADERS than I do in functional MANAGERS.  Let me explain.

I work in an industry that has many functions involving very specific techniques, procedures, methods, etc.  So, the people I work around tend to be developing very strong skills in these types of activities. For now, I'll call these "task oriented" even though some of these activities are also interpretive in nature.  The most senior and skilled of these task oriented folks tend to rise in the organization to more senior positions.  The interesting thing to observe is when they arrive at those senior positions, and the corresponding people-management requirements associated with them, they suddenly discover that they can no longer use "task management" techniques to coach, lead, guide, and develop others. I've seen many of these folks struggle to ever become effective in these roles because they just can't let go of the systems and habits that got them to this point. These are clearly the "managers" to which I referred earlier.

Leaders, however, begin showing different traits well before they arrive at the senior positions. They'll do things like "just try something" even when the facts didn't direct them there. Or, they might use simple and practical logic to bypass a step or two in their work because they are able to balance the "risk / reward" equation satisfactorily. Once these folks reach a level of responsibility that includes the coaching and development of others, they often find the tasks related to those new responsibilities less stressful and uncomfortable than the managers I referred to earlier.  Moreover, these are the same folks that tend to begin thinking about "how things ought to be" or identifying future needs and opportunities faster than do the task-management bound individuals.

However, the best trait of all may be that leaders are the folks that are comfortable using partial information and JUDGMENT to make decisions. This is a critical difference that I see between Managers and Leaders. Managers manage and react to the known. Leaders comfortably lead into and through the unknown.

How about your organization? Do you struggle with too few leaders? Does your organization even see the difference? Do you? Let me know your thoughts!