Key takeaways on leading and managing

Warren Bennis came out strongly on the lack of leadership in American society. In his book “Why leaders can’t lead” published in 1976 he questioned the ability of leaders as to why they cannot deliver. He found that the crucial cause is the lack of connection between leading & managing

He went on to define leaders as people who do the right thing but managers as doing the things right. The pithy statement can be elaborated in the following manner: Leaders make the right decision but in order to implement such decision there is a need for managing it to its completion.

If you allow managers to make a strategic decision they cannot proceed much longer because managers are trained to accept the status quo as they are in the operational floor that mandates them to strictly adhere to a set procedure. Managers tend to ask questions from their subordinates in the line of “how & when”. Whereas leaders, challenge the status-quo by asking questions “what & why”.

But every effective leader needs to be an efficient manager too. It does not mean that he gets into nitty-gritty of everything under his watch. What he needs is asking the right questions and getting the right answers so that system can take care of how to proceed with.

In business strategy it is indeed necessary that firms have a proper mix of leading and managing abilities in their cadre. In sum, it means there is a balance between both leading & managing. When this balance goes haywire we have two situations:

1.        Over-led & under-managed:  This scenario happens in military campaigns, corporates and also in countries that are of totalitarian in structure

2.        Over-managed & under-led:  This situation is often seen in large corporates with huge bureaucracy, developing countries and in US Administration.

Cheers!

Muthu Ashraff

Business Strategist

Mobile: + 94 777 265677

E-mail:   cosmicgems@gmail.com

Blog:   Business Strategist