Interesting Read: First
break all the Rules! by by Marcus Buckingham and Curt W. Coffman
To
implement a successful digital strategy requires a firm and forward looking
leadership. We all know
this management quote "Managers do things
right. Leaders do the right things." Conventional wisdom is proud of
maxims like this. it uses
them to encourage managers to label themselves "leaders." It casts
the manager as the dependable plodder, while the leader is the sophisticated
executive, scanning the horizon, strategising.
Since most people would rather
be a sophisticated executive than a dependable plodder, this advice seems
positive and developmental.
Great
managers will tell you that it isn't -- it demeans the manager role but doesn't
succeed in doing much else. They will tell you that the difference between a
manager and leader is much more profound than most people think, and that the
company which overlooks this difference will suffer for it.
The most important
difference between a great manager and a great leader is one of focus. Great
managers look inward. They look inside the company, into each individual, into
the differences in style, goals, needs and motivation of each person.
Great
leaders, by contrast, look outward. They look out at the competition, out at
the future, out at alternative routes forward. They focus on broad patterns,
finding connections, cracks, and then press home their advantage where the
resistance is weakest. They must be visionaries, strategic thinkers,
activators. When played well, this is, without doubt, a critical role. Great managers are not
mini-executives waiting for leadership to be thrust upon them. Great leaders
are not simply managers who have developed sophistication. The core activities
of a manager and a leader are simply different. It is entirely possible for a
person to be a brilliant manager and a terrible leader. But it is just as
possible for a person to excel as a leader and fail as a manager. And, of
course, a few exceptionally talented individuals excel at both.
If
companies confuse the two roles by expecting every manager to be a leader, or
if they define "leader" as simply a more advanced form of
"manager," then the all-important "catalyst" role will soon
be undervalued, poorly understood and poorly played. Gradually the company will
fall apart.
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