In his 2014 book (above), Sutton notes: Although Bennis’s distinction is more or less correct, and useful to a degree, it has unintended negative effects on how some leaders view and do their work. Some now see their job as just coming up with big and vague ideas, and treat implementing them, or even engaging in conversation and planning about the details of them, as mere “management” work that is beneath their station and stature. Worse still, this distinction seems to be used as a reason for leaders to avoid the hard work of learning about the people that they lead, the technologies their companies use, and the customers they serve.
When we glorify leadership too much, and management too little, there is great risk of failing to act on this obvious but powerful message: “To do the right thing, a leader needs to understand what it takes to do things right, and to make sure they actually get done.” I’m not rejecting the distinction between leadership and management, but I am saying the best leaders do something that might properly be called a mix of leadership and management. At a minimum, they lead in a way that constantly takes into account the importance of management.
Forget what the cult of leadership contributed to the massive outsourcing of jobs and unprecedented wealth inequality, if not to the outright profiteering and/or other questionable, unethical, immoral practices running rampant through the corporate world. Those are problems too pervasive and far reaching for the average person to contend with. Instead, I ask you to consider this: Whenever I survey business students about which role they prefer—manager vs. leader—or their views about the importance of management vs. leadership, the results are overwhelmingly on the side of leaders and leadership.
Image: Shutterstock
Communication Transformations 