There’s a difference between management and leadership. Management is dealing with timeframes and resources. Leadership is dealing with people — individuals with personalities and emotions. A leader takes the time to get to know the people under them, and the care to consider their egos and feelings when making decisions.
Whether you like it or not, people have egos that are very much beyond your control. They are not, however, beyond influence. You can never control how people are going to react to a situation. But if you get to know them, you can anticipate how they’re likely to react, and then take that likelihood into consideration when making decisions and how you inform them of those decisions.
It’s the same difference between making someone show you respect, and getting them to actually respects you. More often than not, showing someone that you respect them as the individual that they actual are is enough to earn their respect. And when people respect you, they’ll willingly follow directions.
“But if you get to know them…” – that is the key difference, as leaders know their peeps.
And why the Kirk photo??
mp/m
Because no Captain got to know their Yeoman as well as Kirk did ;)
Great post!
In my recently published pre-teen novel, Ian, one of Santa’s Helpers, struggles to understand the differences between managing and leading. He understands that management is based upon processes, order, and controls and that leadership is more about developing the potential in others.
I think that it would be a step in the right direction if we were to teach some of the management and leadership concepts to our youth at an early age. Later on in life, they will be more receptive to change which is always happening in the business world, or in our lives in general.
All the best!
Eric Dana Hansen
Author of “IAN, CEO, North Poleâ€
http://www.ianceonorthpole.com