It seems like for every one book about management, there are 10 on leadership. But without great management systems and practices, all those great leadership skills can be wasted.
When you get the balance between leadership and management wrong, good employees will leave, and even worse – bad employees will stay (bad employees love it when you don’t have good management systems).
Below are 3 aspects of leadership and management to consider when you’re growing your team:
1. Systems + Culture.
Management is focused on creating productive and competent people with systems and processes.
Leadership creates a culture that attracts, inspires, and retains the right people.
Your team needs a great environment/culture (that’s the leadership part) and the necessary tools + training to be productive (the management part).
2. Expectations.
People perform best when they understand what’s expected of them.
Management needs to set clear expectations both for what employees need to do, and the outcomes that are expected from those actions.
Managers should:
- Regularly review expectations with team members
- Set up processes to ensure expectations are met
- Micromanage the processes, not the people
Leadership, on the other hand, should set expectations for the department/company as a whole and the roles employees play within it. By helping people understand how they fit into the bigger picture, and making them feel a part of it, you’ll give them ownership.
3. The Skill and The Will.
Ken Blanchard wrote a great book on how to balance leadership and management called Leadership and the One Minute Manager. It’s based on the concept of commitment and competence, or the skill and the will.
Does the employee have the skill to do what’s asked of them, and do they have the will or desire to do it?
You will need to manage/lead each team member differently based on their proportion of skill and will. I highly suggest you read his book for tips on how to balance and choose when you lead and when you manage, based on the individual.
Getting the balance right will help you avoid creating a negative culture, driving away your best employees and having your worst employees stay.
If you want to know more about implementing management and leadership systems that work for your business, schedule a call to identify the #1 thing you can do now to get the balance right.
Author: Mark McNulty, Business Coach in Louisville, KY