Leaders vs Managers

Over the last couple of years I've thought a lot about the difference between a Manager and  a Leader. I've also had to learn in which camp I reside.

Throughout history there have always been leaders and managers. And that doesn't change in today's workplace (obviously) but it's important to understand what you are and also which one you're working for.

I'm not saying one is better than the other, in fact, I think organisations need both to be successful.
I am saying they are very different and recognising that is critical to you and your organisation's success.

Managers

Managers are, by their nature, list makers and list finishers. Management is often defined as a science and the more I learn, the more I understand why. Management is all about getting it done on time, on budget and on quality (or 2 of the 3 for Project Managers).

Managers thrive in having the order to the day understanding exactly how things will play out. For there people the big picture is important, but only in so much as how it impacts what they are doing right now.

Every organisation needs these people, especially the good ones. They are the people who clean up the loose ends, make sure the processes are up-to-date and followed, and make sure everything is done in a neat little package. They also want to be sure it's reproducible to become more efficient the next time.

If you want to identify a manager, look at his/her desk. It's neat, orderly and things stacked in piles. There's lots of coloured file folders and everything makes sense.

They also take a lot of notes in meetings. Very detailed notes.

Leaders

Leaders are different than managers. Leaders live in the "what's next" world. They also are much less concerned about the minute details of an project but much more focused on the "get it done" success factor. That is a great trait but it can cause as many problems as it solves if the Leader is always going in weird and odd places with the organisation.

Leaders are the ones who love the ambiguity and thrive when someone hands them a project with no direction other than "go figure this out."

If you want to identify a leader, look at his/her desk -- if you can find it. Desks are always a mess with random paper everywhere. Notes stuck to monitors and scribbled on pads of paper all over the place.

Whiteboards are the leaders friend... But they will look like an ink explosion until they are explained.

In meetings, from my experience, leaders take the notes they need. They quickly dismiss many portions of a meeting that don't apply to them.  And the notes are pretty much a mess.

Good leaders and good managers need each other

It's true. Any organization needs both good leaders AND good managers to truly be successful. A good leader will miss the small details and move on to the next project too quickly. Things will get left undone because something else came up.

Good managers need the leader to find what's next and temper the decision making away from purely process- or metrics-based reasoning.

 That's why you need to work with a good manager and a good leader to have the whole package.

A good manager will manage the swath of disorder that the leader produces. The good leader will stay (somewhat) on-side to be sure things don't get out of hand. Simply put, it's a partnership. The problem is most organizations don't tend to have both -- or at least don't treat them equally.

Managers call leaders reckless and incapable of following process

Leaders call managers rigid and mired in systems unable to see the big picture of their actions.

That's why they need to be brought together (Yin and the Yang) to succeed. Success exists not in the details but in the collective work of both.

On the surface this seems obvious, as with all simple truths. However, in practise this is really hard to master and create.

So which one am I?

I'm a leader. I like the ambiguity and love being given a random problem to figure out -- And I'm pretty good at it. In every organization in which I've ever worked, I was always given the hard, weird, convoluted problem and projects. I used to think it was almost a form of punishment. However I realised than in most cases, it was because people trusted me to just go figure it out. It was important, it needed to get done well, but it was too messed up to give to anyone else.

The problem was it meant my measure of success was always different. In stead of having an easy, on time project, it was for me, a miracle we didn't get fired (because we were about to). Or success looked like finishing a project at all because no one thought it was possible.

Also I fit this category because I create a path of disorder. I know I do it, but that's where I thrive. I'm not as bad as I used to be, and I do make sure I understand the processes and requirements. Once I know how the managers who work with me are measured and how their systems work I can make sure I keep them in situations where they can be successful. I know I need a great manager to work with me to keep things moving but that's what the partnership is all about.

Stress vs Anxiety

One of the things I'm realizing the most since my job change was exactly how much anxiety I had in the job. Anxiety is different than stress (at least for me) -- I've had stressful jobs with a lot of deliverbles, tight timelines, things that went wrong, every job has that. But what I am realizing was that the other place wasn't stressful as much as it was completely filled with pure anxiety:

• anxiety that you were going to get fired
• anxiety that taking time off meant you were dropped from projects and out of the loop
• anxiety that you were going to be cursed out in front of people with whom you have to work
• anxiety that missing a meeting meant you would lose parts of your job
• anxiety that you'd get thrown under the bus to make someone else look good
• anxiety that you had to answer emails right away or you weren't doing your job

Just a lot of pure anxiety. And none of it was constructive to a good working environment or increased performance. I remember having similar conversations with other people working there and it not really registering. Now that I'm in a role and a company where things are professional and normal, it just seems so different and relaxing. There is no anxiety (there is still stress, but that's ok). And as a result, things get done, people are content and things move a lot smoother.

And the weird part is, I'm having some trouble adjusting. Almost like I'm constantly looking over my shoulder waiting for a hammer to fall and get blamed for something.

Anxiety in an organization is poison, it poisons performance, it poisons working environment and it will eventually poison product and client satisfaction. You can debate the merits of some stress in a job to keep people at their best, but anxiety has no place in a business. If your people are on edge and anxious then your company cannot prosper.

So the lesson here for me is to look for this in places where I work and teams that I manage. If the company can never quite get there than maybe, just maybe what you think is stress is actually anxiety. Then the key is to find the cause and get rid of it. If that's a person, fire them. If that's a job function, change it. If that's a corporate culture, change it. ASAP.

2 years is way too long -- The New Year's Resolution

Well, 2 years without an entry means this blog had officially joined the ranks of the forgotten. And really, it speaks to how the last 2 years have been.... VERY fast but very busy.

In some ways its been good. Jobs went ok, then not, then ok again. I was successful in removing mydelf from the area of the company that was causing the most stress, but in a small business you never really get away. What that meant was the bad feelings and animosity I left always stayed around. It was the subtone for everything for the last 2 years. There were constant battles everywhere for no real reason other than 2 personalities that didn't match.

 Finally I decided to leave the company and do something different. It was a hard decision but one that needed to be made. And ironically, it was about 2 years overdue.

A while ago I posted about wondering how to know when you're done. At the time things were bad on a lot of levels. What I realize now is that sometimes you're actually done before you know it. You may know in your soul but failure is hard to take. And my time with this company was a personal failure. I had some good successes in programs, I blew the doors off my revenue targets, customers were really happy and we made progress. But I was passed over for promotions, relegated out of roles I wanted and prevented from taking on the roles where I could do the most good. By admission of my manager, not because it's not the right role for me, but because other people don't want me there.

But personally, it was tough. I spent every part of my being to get what I achieved only to (so I've been told) be downplayed and blamed in Exec meetings. Again, the problems I tried to leave stayed around. The failure was twofold:

1. Not being able to see the impacts early enough
2. Not being able to work through them after the fact

I don't know if anything was fixable, that takes a desire on both sides.

So, I moved on. Much to the disapointment of a lot of senior people. Which is a little ironic as they all expressed disappointment I was leaving, agreed that there was a serious personality conflict but never wanted to address it (as they hadn't for years).

I'm now in a great role in a larger organization. This isn't permenent, it was never intended to be. Its a chance for me to get centered again, find some of the confidence in myself and my abilities I've lost and also just take a bit of a breather.

I want to go back to a small company with big stress and massive opportunities, but I'm being a lot more selective. This time I really want the good company vibe and environment before I sign on for the rest.

My New Year's Resolution -- Write more, be more comfortable, get back in the game.

See how it goes.

5 Months later

Well, it's been 5 months since I've posted here and things have been up and down to say the least. I've made some progress in a lot of areas, but really, nothing that makes things any better.

I have, however, decided to stop complaining and start changing. I've been on a bit of a job hunt, but moreso internally. I'm trying to create me role in the company and then grow into it. It's weird, I have been successful in some areas, but not in others. Yet at least now I know I'm learning. That makes me happier.

So I'm going back to what this blog was supposed to be-- Me talking through things and learning from them. Maybe if someone decides to read this blog, they will see something of themselves here too.

So....

I had this program that I have to kick off, it was something I've done before but I missed something that was really important. I had all the pieces lined up, things were moving forward and on-schedule I thought, until the VP stepped in and put a stop on a key piece for me. I learned then that I had a problem-- Not that the program kick off was at risk (that was fixable), but  I had missed the piece of getting the buy-in from the other key stakeholders in the company. I had reached out to the operational people in each group and the work was getting done, but the exec level just wasn't understanding how much progress we had been making.

It was a simple fix (a bi-weekly meeting would have done it) but it was a step that I missed. And for the life of me, I don't know why. It may be because I was up to me unmentionables in trying to get work through for FY end, or it might be because it just never occurred to me. Either way, it was learning experience.

I'm finding myself looking for permission to do things that I should just go ahead and do. And I need to get myself to a place where I am confident enough to move on things I know are right and then get it done. I think that is the key to really moving up, but am I right??? . Is it about not just creating the solution, but executing on it?

 Ironically, it seems circular. You start by just doing the work, then you manage the work, then you create the solution, now I'm back to executing on the solution I create. Is that what exec management is? Create AND execute on the plan? Or is there still something I missing?? Or am I know at the "get it done" phase of a new level? I dunno, but either way, it was a good learning experience for me.

The more things... well, stay the same

It's been almost a month since my last post. I intentionally left it as such because I wanted to really get a sense of how things have been over the last while. I'm basically trying to create the outside view for myself. God love the internet for helping.

There have been 2-3 good days, but the rest pretty crappy. Things are bad and getting worse potentially. Namely because something I've been saying for 6 months is finally happening, and that sucks.

We have no work.

The sales team has closed 1/5th of the amount they need for us to break even and we're 1/2 way through our fiscal. The math ain't hard to do. What does that mean for us management-types? Well... it means we're being forced into pushing the projects we do have so the teams have work. Under any other circumstance the decisions that are happening now would be chastised and almost mocked for being so outrageously stupid. But I'm learning that when you're light on work, the stupid becomes the prudent pretty fast.

And that piece is new, basically everything I've learned and been told in management seems to have gone out the window. I'm sure it's because people are panicked and stressed, but still... A bad idea when times are good may still be a bad idea.

What I'm not sure is if this is the norm in organizations or if this place is an anomaly. I've never worked in a place where the sales team has had such little success. And really never had that be the problem of the operational side of the organization. Maybe that's the joy of a small company, but it sure doesn't feel that way now. I liked the lack of bureaucracy when I came her, it was refreshing. But I wasn't counting on the added amount of panic that seems to go with it.

Small companies need a special type of management team for sure, but can the group that builds also sustain and grow? Or do different people need to do that? And which one am I?

My favorite Leadership quotes

I'm trying to remind myself of the things I used to use and believe. So here's a compilation of my favorite quotes from leaders. I'm hoping it reminds me to get things done the way I need to.

It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.
Nelson Mandela

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
Peter Drucker

Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
Colin Powell

You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.
Ken Blanchard

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
Harry S. Truman



Get mad, then get over it.
Colin Powell

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers who can cut through the argument debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” 
― Colin Powell

How do you know when you're done?

How do you know when you're done? I mean really done. The kind of done where just walking out the door with the resounding sound of "Fck it" is the best option for you?

I guess if you're asking the question, it's probably close, but how do you know for sure? There are bad days everywhere, and that's to be expected. But when is a bad day, or a bad project just that?? And when is it just time to realize it'll never get better and to get the hell out???

That's my dilema. My gut says get the hell out, but my logical side is saying that I can stick it out and have it get better. But I dunno. These last few months have been horrible and I've absolutely hated where I work. But is it an anomaly or is it the way it is? The problem is no one knows.

People tell me never to make big decisions when times are bad. But I tend to think that how people react when how you are treated when times are bad is what really shows how people's true colours. If times are bad and people rally to help, it's great. If times are bad and people take the opportunity to kick you then that shows you're not working for leaders, you're working for a jackass.

So, I dunno. Am I done -- it feels that way. But maybe the place just needs a leader who'll chose to pick people up, not kick them. And maybe it's time for me to be that person.

Or, maybe I should listen to my gut and get out. The band still played on the Titanic as she was sinking. And the conductor wasn't a leader, he was someone who just didn't realize the true gravity of the situation. I don't want to be the guy who was conducting the band on the Titanic.