Myth 1: Lofty leadership tops mere management

deMyth 1: Leadership and management are two sides of the same job—managers have to lead, leaders have to manage.

Excerpted from Chapter 1 of my new book, Bust those Management Myths. To get an invitation to a webinar with me in September and receive a free PDF version of the book, please see the instructions at the end.

Ever since Warren Bennis claimed a half century ago that leaders “do the right things” while managers “do things right,” we have been mired in the myth that leadership is somehow superior to management. Leaders take the long view, see the big picture, from on top; managers administer the consequences down below. So simple. Until we lift the rock over lofty leadership, to uncover the ground of regular managing.

John Cleghorn, CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada, called the office one day on his way to the airport to report a broken ATM machine. The bank had thousands of such machines. Why was the chief bothering to report one? Was he micromanaging? Maybe he was leading by managing, namely, setting an example for others to follow: keep your eyes open even for small problems.

Gord Irwin was the Front Country Manager of the Banff National Park—an operations manager, in charge of the “civilized” part of the park, the roads, etc. He was concerned about the long-term consequences of a parking lot expansion at a ski hill. Was Gord pretending to lead? Or was he doing something right in the short term, for the sake of the long term?

Hence, I propose an end to the myth that leadership is separate from management, and somehow superior. This is depreciating management all right, but leadership more so. We may obsess about being overmanaged, but now we are over-led.

Would you like to be managed by someone who doesn’t lead? That could be awfully discouraging. Well then, why would you want to be led by someone who doesn’t manage? They wouldn’t know what’s going on. Management is about rolling up your sleeves to find out what’s going on. As Jim March of Stanford University put it, “leadership involves plumbing as well as poetry.”

Micro-managing may be bad, but macro-leading can be worse. And worst of all are macro-leaders who micro-manage. Micro-managers can get so enmeshed in the details that they lose sight of the big picture. But macro-leaders can get so removed from the details that they can't create any picture at all. (The “big picture” of an organization has to be painted with the little brushstrokes of everyday experience.)

And while micro-managing may undermine the efforts of some managers, macro-leading can undermine the spirit of the entire organization. But be especially beware of the macro-leaders who micro-manage: they flit back and forth between abstract generalities that help no one and specific interruptions that hinder everyone, with a kind of no-vision land in between. (Anyone comes to mind?)

Hence, we shall have to recognize that leadership apart from management has become the problem more than the solution. Have you noticed that the more we obsess about leadership, the less of it we get? We need managers who lead, by engaging themselves to engage others, to help release the energy that exists naturally within people.

You can pre-order the Myths book and then register here using your proof of purchase. Once registered, you will receive your digital PDF copy right away, along with an invitation to an exclusive webinar.