Managers both manage and lead.
This true statement should stop the debate as to whether you, as a middle manager (MM), are a manager or a leader. You are both blended into one. You are a manaleader!
Let’s do some first principle thinking about this.
There is work that needs to be organized and carried out. Managing is about making that happen.
The work to be carried out is known and the people to do the work are hired specifically to carry out the work. The manager ensures that this happens.
An example will be a Workshop manager in a car dealership. Cars have to be repaired, the mechanics have to do the repairs, drivers move the vehicles and the cashier makes the invoices and receives payment. All this needs to be organized.
Processes are established, bookings made, reports produced, capacity for repairing or servicing the cars calculated, people hired, tools maintained and payments. received. Making sure all this happens smoothly is the job of a manager.
The owner of the car dealership has a very strong desire to ensure that all customers are so happy that they keep returning and recommending the services of the dealership to others.
The owner speaks to the manager and says he wants the service area to rethink the way they are working so that customers are not just satisfied but are smilingly joyful.
Enter the leader. With smilingly joyful objective in mind, and unable to reach it alone, the MM gets others together, to get into action, and achieve the objective. That is leading.
Something needs to change, but what? Working with others the MM finally has a clear idea of what needs to change. Now he needs to align the service staff, get them onboard and excited and committed to help make the changes. Once the wonderful changes are made and they are working well, the MM can go back to managing the Service center which now includes the changes made.
The leader in a MM sees a possibility or is enlisted in seeing a possibility and then enlists other to get into action to create that possibility in reality. Leading always operates in the realm of change.
The Manager in the MM works with others to keep or get things operating smoothly. Managing mainly operates within the current reality and change is mainly about stopping errors or ensuring consistency. Even here the leader might be needed if, for example, to improve consistency a part of the process needs to be changed.
In real life where the manager role stops and the leader role starts becomes fuzzy. Separating them is a fool’s work as it is neither necessary nor useful. The need to lead pops up all over the place. In the above example the dealer owner was leading the dealership to a new future and enlisting the MM to get into action. Another time the MM might be in a meeting and lead the conversation to address an issue the MM sees as solvable. Another time the MM might see an opportunity for a staff member to grow by taking on a stretch target. This will take a leader to get the staff member on board and into action.
The managing part organizes, executes and gets the work done.
The leader part creates and achieves, with the help of others, an envisaged , new reality.
The leader sees the possibility of a wonderful colorful jigsaw and gets people together to design and create it.
A manager organizes people to work to assemble the purchased jig saw.
Another way of looking at it is:
A manager achieves results by ensuring that the current processes, methods and actions are used to achieve an objective.
A manager recognizes that doing things the current way are not going to achieve the results needed and so sets about enlisting others to help develop a more effective way. This is leading. Creating something that does not yet exist.
The first one involves motivating, monitoring and developing the doers to achieve the result.
The second one involves changing how things are done.
Middle Managers are always in the midst of managing and leading.
A major call for a MM to lead come from strategies, programs and policies requested by senior management or ‘Head Office’. These invariably involve change and require leading.
Together you are a Manaleader!
