Managers and Management

My thanks to Marc Burgauer for spotting the discrepancy between my meaning of the words manager/leader and the common understanding. A true act of management. This blog is a pretty much straight up copy of the presentation I gave at the APLN in Autumn 2009. IT is based on this article published on InfoQ.

I have a problem with Leaders and Managers. I have a problem with the idea of anointed / appointed individuals being in control just because they were trusted rather than competent. I own it as my own problem as others do not have this problem.

To me, A leader is someone who engages in acts of leadership. A manager is someone who engages in acts of management. Leader is not a role or job title. Manager is not a role or job title.

• Leaders are the guardians of the future.
• Managers are guardian of the present (or rather the current processes).

So what does a Leader do? What are the Leadership tasks that are needed for a healthy organisation?

1. They are responsible for the visionsssss. <– Note plural. Leaders ensure an organisation has options. Unlike leadership at Nokia that killed options for the future and left the company unprepared for failure.
2. They prepare the organisation for the unknown. The classic tool here is scenario planning. Talking through scenarios so that the organisation can react when faced with unexpected events.
3. They look for new risk and opportunities. They are scanning the environment for options.
4. They give us time to react. By making us aware of these options, we have time to prepare.

So what does a manager do? What are the management tasks that are needed for a healthy organisation?

1. They facilitate the creation of the process. They don’t own the process. They own the responsibility for the process. To ensure that it is healthy.
2. They watch out for broken processes. They look for risk in the process that is unmanaged.
3. They look out for gaming. Those that cheat in a transparent way so that the weaknesses of the process can be managed.
4. They monitor and manage the known risks and opportunities.

The punch line of the presentation is…

We need fewer leaders.

Thats why I love the work Dan Mezick has been doing using Open Space as a tool to create communities of Leaders and Managers within organisations that want to change.