Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I recently attended a business conference where Mark Sanborn, author of "You Don`t Need a Title to be a Leader" spoke about the differences between leading your employees, and managing your employees.  I recently hired some part-time help to assist me with our upcoming tour, and what I found after the conference was that I was managing my employee too much, not leading enough.

Some quotables that Mark used to illustrate the difference between leaders and managers consisted of:

"Leaders sell.  Managers tell."

"Leaders have power with people.  Managers have power over people."

"Leaders try to make heroes of those around them.  Managers try to be heroes."

"Leaders take responsibility.  Managers take credit."

So after considering these quotes I ask you, are you a leader or a manager?  And what makes you a good one?

Oooh ... good one.

I had a class in college taught by Ken Blanchard in which he handed out this book. It`s a good read.

I try to be a leader. I try to be a good leader! It`s hard. I think it`s easiest when you have the right people working for you. Ira (my artist for people who don`t know) and I are a good team - complete opposites.

But like with anything, I have good and bad days. I have a lot to lead around here ...

Really nice.  Thanks for sharing with us.

Titles don`t make you a leader, people can tell if you are a leader or not.  One thing about a leader is that he/she does not have to make people think that he/she is better then them.

Like nikole said, I try to be a leader too.  The fact that I have a very good set of individuals around me with good technical skill helps a lot.  I try to identify leaders among them and make them realize that actually they are the ones who are making us successful.  We also do a lot of group activities like hiking, going out for lunch etc.  The idea is to develop a bonding.

But the most important thing is that you have to be sincere with your people and they will know it when you are not.

 

-------------------------

A relationship without trust is not much of a relationship.
www.adaptivesolutionsinc.com

I like what Marcus Buckingham said in "The One Thing..." A leader defines a better future and convinces us that they are capable of taking us there. This is why people gravitate to "leaders." We can all sense when someone seems to have a clue and we like to follow such people. Then, to be a leader we need to be such a person.

Ask your self this question: People should follow me because____________ . If you cannot answer this with conviction you need to work on it. It may be situational.



-------------------------

Roger Anderson
Blog www.modernmagellans.com
Author - Maps for Modern Magellans: Charts for Captains of Commerce
www.mapsformodernmagellans.com
Here my voice at www.squidoo.com/donteatthesteak
Visit them often to see what has changed.
As they say in Chicago: Vote early and often!

I`m just waiting for someone to tell me what to do.

Folks,
     My prior career was in the military.  We steadfastly prided ourselves on being "leaders; not managers."  The rather myopic thought process behind that was that leaders dealt with people; managers dealt with things.
     After several years as a manager in a Fortune 500 firm and graduating business school, I realize there`s a sweet spot that needs to be sought between the two - leadership and management.  Looking back, I realize that I could have been a more effective military leader by effectively blending some solid management techniques into my leadership style. 
     It`s a subject ripe for long philisophical discourse.  Simplistically, I feel that the truly great leaders manage to blend both sets of skills.  One of my favorite quotes that I feel very succintly sums up my point is...
    "Managers get people to do what they don`t want to do.  Leaders get them to do what they didn`t think they could."
     Take care.

I think there`s a big component of leadership in that leaders often demonstrate what needs to be done, where managers order people around. That credibility gap eventually catches up with the managers. They`re seen as having a lot of book knowledge, but no practical understanding.

Of course a good manager understands how to get people to do things anyway, and that`s where the blend Pskipper is referring to comes into play.

Great topic.

 

From my point of view, most entrepreneurs who build a team will be a manager by default (especially in the beginning.) There are simply just too many things that must be done.

But real entrepreneurial freedom and massive results come from learning to shift into leadership.

How do you know if you are being one or the other? Here are a few distinctions from my point of view:

- Do you have people that know how to do their job...or do you constantly have to manage them to get things done?

- Do members of your team repeatedly miss their deadlines or make mistakes?

- Are you so bogged down in the day-to-day of the business that you can`t focus on future vision and new ideas?

I`m curious...anyone else have some distinctions for how to know if you are leading or managing?

 

-------------------------

Melanie Benson Strick
Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach
& Virtual Team Building Expert
http://www.successconnections.com

Discover "101 Ways to Triple Your Income by Outsourcing Your High Payoff Activities" at http://www.successconnections.com/101ways.

We had some interesting discussion about the concept and definition of a leader, in this thread, a while back. In that context, it was how to differentiate a leader from a servant.

But to distinguish leadership from management skills I think is a bit more difficult. What would be a good example of a leader, and what would be a good example of a manager? Perhaps that might help narrow down the definition?

Reason I ask is that lots of leaders get bogged down in details, for example, and have to manage situations. However, on first glance, I would say few managers exhibit "leadership" in some fashion. We seem to "sense" that there`s a difference, though.

Is leadership *always* associated also with charisma? For example, could we say that Bill Clinton is a leader, but Al Gore is a manager? Does a leader *always* have to have followers?

I`ll just add one thing here.  Leading isn`t easy.  I`ve found that out in my first couple of weeks into my first entrepreneurial venture.  It`s hard.

Leadership requires resilence, courage, guts to stand up to fight for your vision, sacrifice, and to use my favorite word, passion.