Management versus Leadership
The words management and leadership have become interchangeable in their common use. At Say Leadership Coaching we coach them as two different things. Let’s take a look at what Webster says:
Lead v., to go before or with to show the way; conduct or escort.
- Random House Webster’s College Dictionary, Random House New York, 1995 edition.
These are terrific definitions, concise and simple to remember, and clear in the difference between them. We believe that those in positions of leadership today need to understand both things, and learning to manage well comes first.
Managers are charged with delivering results: that's the reality of business. As you work toward producing expected business results, coaching in Alaka'i (the Hawaiian value of personal leadership) will help you cultivate qualities that earn you the trust and respect of others, others who potentially will choose to follow you.
Intuitive leaders see great managers as the glue that holds everything together for them: they need highly effective managers to get the work itself done. Managers help leaders translate vision into action: they execute well. Often, managers are much closer to both customers and staff. Leaders need not be great managers themselves, but if not, they need to enlist the help of those who are, giving those managers freedom and space to work, and supporting their efforts in a strong partnership. Leaders “go before to show the way,” they keep the fires of shared vision burning brightly.
In our coaching, we teach to manage well first, so that emerging leaders learn the empathy needed to lead effectively when they have found a new and better way and their vision is born. Their management experience will have earned for them a circle of influence from which to stage their future efforts. A manager’s authority is respected when he knows his job, his business, and his people. He shows his respect for them; he understands what others must do to make a business successful. The results he has already achieved award him with credibility.
I often refer to Managing with Aloha as the “Third Peak” in learning my workplace philosophy; if you are to be a truly GREAT manager, you must LIVE with Aloha and WORK with Aloha first. That means you self-manage before you presume to manage others ...
~ Rosa Say, founder of Say Leadership CoachingRosa expanded on her feelings conveyed in this quote in two widely-distributed articles earlier this year Read more in these reprints:
