Essential Qualities of Leaders and Managers

The words leadership and management are used interchangeably, but they are very different. Few people are both good leaders and good managers. There are hundreds of books written about leadership and management, but I especially like this distinction written by Stephen Covey, the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.” Both leading and managing others have a lot to do with effective communication, listening, building trust, empowering others, and establishing a culture where others can perform well.

I have had many leadership and management roles in my life and career. The first of these was when I was my high school yearbook editor-in-chief. In my role as leader, among other things, I envisioned something that had never been done before: to add color to selected pages and to operate our budget so that we actually made a profit. After nine months of rigorous work, this leadership vision was realized and the final outcome was a resounding success!  My management style, however, left a lot to be desired. I was too assertive and aggressive, without being a good listener. I committed to learn from this difficult experience by becoming a better manager and continuing to hone my leadership skills.

When it comes to managing, it might be helpful to recognize that there are multiple aspects of managing: we can manage ourselves, we can manage a project, and we can manage a group of people, a department, a company or organization. Managing has a lot to do with developing our personal characteristics  including our habits, becoming disciplined, being prepared and organized, and becoming resilient. Armed with these characteristics, these four roles constitute the core of managing:

• Planning the work
• Organizing the team
• Assigning and directing the work
• Monitoring the result and making adjustments

On the other hand, the primary traits of a leader are defined by the well-respected consulting firm McKinsey as follows:

• Sets direction. Creates and articulates vision. Frames the issues, often using a written agenda or other visual items.
• Fosters culture. Encourages brainstorming and is open to new ideas. Engages others and sets expectations. Is willing to confront.
• Initiates action. Follows through with persistence. This is sometimes seen as tenacity and determination or, at times, bullheadedness and obstinacy.
• Has the ability to motivate. They know that motivation comes from vision, not fear. “If I don’t want to, you can’t make me. But you can always make me want to.”
• Leads by example. A leader brings out the best in others by sharing the best within themselves.

Great leaders inspire action. In a TED Talk, Simon Sinek suggests we start with why, not how—because people might not do things the way we do, but they respond to why we do them. He recommends we consider the Golden Circle, comprising three concentric circles. The outer ring is about what. The middle circle is about how. The innermost circle is about why. Great leaders go from the inside circle outward. They inspire others by saying, “We believe in x, y, and z; therefore, let’s do a, b, and c. Doing business with people who believe what we believe enhances our effectiveness, creates loyalty, and forms culture.

We usually think of leaders as people. If we think of leadership as a person, it’s easy to fall into ego and power clashes. I want to suggest another definition of a leader. Consider the leader as the Mission. In this way, different people with different things to contribute at various stages can step forward to guide the rest of the team during the next phase. Of course, with the leader-as-Mission approach, the roles and traits described here will be required when we step forward for a period to lead or manage.

 Are you a leader? Are you a manager? Have you tried the leader-as-mission approach?   

By creating and following specific habits and best practices, leaders and managers, and the organization overall, are more likely to succeed and thrive. What habits and best practices are these? After reviewing many important, large projects, Warren Bennis, a pioneer in leadership studies who believed that leaders are made —not born, discovered that leaders of successful projects habitually do these things: 1.They are willing to abandon their ego for the talents of others—they become curators, not creators. 2.They recruit meticulously. 3.They always remind people why we’re here—it’s about the project. 4.They form groups that are not hierarchical. Great groups make great leaders. Considering these four habits, it’s not surprising that the projects led to success!

To work effectively with others, reciprocal relationships have to be built between those who choose to lead and those who decide to follow. Strategies, tactics, skills, and practices are empty unless we connect leaders to the people they lead. It all starts with our relationship with ourselves. We have to go beyond our ego. We have to overcome our fear. Then, we need to model leadership, which can be done in numerous ways, including listening well, thanking people, and sharing something personal about ourselves. And instead of simply announcing a conclusion, which can be difficult for people to digest, we can model leadership by walking through the process and explaining why. Modeling leadership in these ways can create vulnerability and require courage. And overall, it’s vitally important to lead with optimism, enthusiasm, and positive energy, and have people focus on solutions, not complaints.

Connecting in relations with others is essential. The first key to connecting is appreciating and accepting differences. This leads to synergy—when the combined effect is greater than the sum of the separate actions. Synergy often enhances our effectiveness and overall outcomes. A second key is that our people have to believe us and buy into what we are saying. Our credibility and competency contribute to buy-in. To create buy-in, we must generate believe-in by valuing others’ opinions, not telling them everything to do, and letting them contribute.

In what ways are you connecting? How are you building synergy, buy-in, and believe-in? What could you do better or more of?    

Relationships also require trust. Trust is the glue that connects people to the leader and their vision. If people trust their leader, they will work toward the vision. Trust is the conduit of influence. Building trust means taking risks. Telling the truth is indispensable. If someone we’re trying to influence doesn’t trust us, we’re not going to get very far. We might even elicit suspicion because we come across as manipulative. We might have great ideas, but those ideas can fall flat without trust. A warm, trustworthy person who is also strong elicits admiration, but only after we have established trust does our strength become a gift rather than a threat.

Another critical aspect of building trust is admitting an error when we were wrong. We must own up to times when we are wrong and do what we can to fix what we did. Depending on the situation, we might need to apologize. When we are wrong or make an error, it will help to remember that a mistake can become an opportunity when we do something about it. In general, bad news can become good news. Mistakes and failures expose our vulnerabilities, making us uncomfortable. This, too, takes courage and humility, but often results in our being more trusted.

Throughout our lives, whether we are leading or managing or even following—within an organization or for ourselves and with our families and friends—we have the enormous, but sometimes subtle, power to make choices about how we work and live in more ways than we realize. We can make choices about shaping our work environment and designing our own lives overall. And we have the power to choose how we feel and how we respond to situations, both good and bad. In these ways, if we choose well and commit to continuing to develop we can thrive as leaders or managers.

Written by Rand Selig.
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