Manage or Lead – Why the Difference Matters and What to Do About That DifferenceLearn Management Articles on management-info.biz. Manage or Lead – Why the Difference Matters and What to Do About That Difference article will help answer your questions on Management Articles.We at management-info.biz specialize in Management Articles. Management Articles at management-info.biz provides the most up to date news and articles. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
Many books have been written about managing people, and an equally large number have been written about leadership. Some use the words manage and lead interchangeably, and some talk about the differences between the words, building a distinction based on style or behaviors. With all due respect for these books, let me make it simple. Manage things and lead people. Manage Often we can clarify much by going to the dictionary to look up words we already know. When I looked up manage on Dictionary .com, I saw phrases like: “To direct or control the use of; handle, to exert control over, to make submissive to one's authority, discipline, or persuasion . . .” Given those definitions there are many things we need to manage: • Budgets • Production schedules • Sales forecasts • Marketing plans • Projects • Work flow … to name a few. Obviously, management skills are important. Organizations need the capability of effectively managing the items and resources on the list above (and 100 other things). The rub comes when you start thinking about managing people. People aren’t budgets or marketing plans. People are a resource in a whole other classification beyond the other resources of an organization. People won’t perform most effectively if they are being controlled or made submissive to authority. (Hey, I’m just using the words from the definition I read!) Lead On the other hand, let’s go back to the dictionary.com for some phrases on lead. “show the way by going in advance, to guide or direct a course, to inspire the conduct of …” are just a few of the definitions I found. People respond to being led. Just as you can’t inspire the conduct of a budget, you won’t be most effective trying to manage people. Which leads me back to my initial premise: Manage things and lead people. Beyond Semantics I challenge you to think about your current practices, habits and approaches to working with other people. If you can find situations, times, or tendencies where you lean towards managing people, I encourage you to try a new approach starting today. Here are six things you can do to shift your focus towards leading: 1. Think about how you have felt when being led vs. being managed. Write down five reasons you prefer to be led and use those reasons as reminders for yourself. 2. Explain these differences to those you lead and have a discussion about those differences. Commit to these people that you want to lead them more and manage them less. Ask for their help in adjusting your approach. 3. Recognize the strengths in those you work with and find ways for them to express those strengths more often and effectively. 4. Take the lead. Show the way by rolling up your sleeves to help a group with a sticky problem or to help them overcome a time crunch. Maybe you know the real work and can help in that way. Maybe you help by getting rid of an obstacle, providing moral support or getting the pizza. 5. Build relationships. Remember always that leading is a relationship activity, so take more time and focus more energy on building relationships with those you lead. As you build relationships you give yourself the opportunity to be more effective as a leader. 6. Think of yourself, call yourself, and introduce yourself as a leader and not a manager. The words matter. Improve your management skills. Learn how to allocate resources, control expenses, and build projects. Use the thoughts in this article to help you continue to improve your leadership skills too. Both skill sets are important. And both always have room for improvement. They just aren’t one in the same… Manage things and lead people. BioDiesel Made Easy. - All you need to know about biodiesel, where to buy, how to make it and where to get more information. Witchcraft Exposed! - Powerful Spells about Love, Luck, Wealth, Money, Protection, etc. Guaranteed Results from the European Wizards. Great Affiliate.
It is that time of the year. You are most likely sitting down with each of your team members and are helping them with their personal development plans. On this episode of AlignIT Manager Tech Talk, Ruth and I talk with Stuart Ngai about the importance of training as part of personal development, as well as when and how training can and should be weaved into employees’ busy schedules. Watch Online This episode is also available as a podcast.
Resources
Featured Guest: Stuart Ngai
About AlignIT Manager Tech Talk The AlignIT Manager Tech Talk is a monthly live streamed video series hosted by Ruth Morton (LinkedIn) and Jonathan Rozenblit (LinkedIn). Each Tech Talk episode airs on the 2nd Thursday of the month from 12:00pm to 12:30pm ET. The show focuses on a range of topics for both infrastructure and development managers and is interactive, taking questions via a live chat and providing answers on air. About AlignIT The AlignIT program is dedicated to keeping IT leaders informed about what matters in business and technology. We do that through in-person events, web casts, our blog and, of course, this audio and video series. You can find more information about the Align IT program at www.alignit.ca. If you have comments, suggestions, and ideas for future topics please let us know by connecting with us via email, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Article Index: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 |
More Articles:1. Get It Done! Soft Skills not Hard Tools are Required By Chuck Yorke If your organization has people, then interpersonal skills are needed.I work with companies that are on a path they call the lean journey. Whatever you call it, it’s based on the Toyota Production System. Some manufacturers embraced it and it became known as Lean Manufacturing, expanded into the Lean Office or Lean Enterprise. During this transformation the approach became focused on tools, but Toyota’s approach is about people.The focus of Lean Manufacturing training has been on technical ski… Cheap Car Insurance 2. What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)? By Rasmus Nielsen Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a phenomenon that is becoming a major discipline within business. CRM can be traced back to the airlines’ attempt to gather information about their customer flying habits in order to stop their high-fare airliners choosing low-fare carriers, however, the concept was invented even further back, when the shop owner knew all his customers by first name and they knew his name. In 1998 The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in conjunction with Andersen Con… 3. The A B Cs of Scenario Planning By Rick Johnson SCENARIO PLANNINGThere are a number of approaches to scenario planning, and they differ greatly based on the people doing the planning and the type of industry the planning is done for. Some of the best examples come from Citibank and Royal Dutch Shell and although the BASIC’s of each are the same the actual scenarios will be very different. Where Shell would be concerned with the Middle East cutting off oil supplies to one political entity or another while Citibank might be more concerned w… 4. Why Businesses Fail - And What You Can Do About It! By Maria Marsala Have you unintentionally set your business up for failure?No one sets out to fail! Most business owners read all the statistics (maybe more than once) before they open their doors. Many know the reasons why businesses fail. But some businesses operate under this paradigm: "failure can never happen to me because I know better." Is that you?What most business owners miss is looking at the reasons for business failure and turning them into action steps to help overcome the odds of failure. How do… |
||||||
Stuart Ngai, Director of Technology Solutions at