I have a master’s degree in organizational leadership, and admittedly, I still cannot simply define it. I usually say, “It’s guiding people to be better and do better.” But that doesn’t even begin to cover the complexities of the concept!
In order to guide people, you have to understand persuasion and motivation, which means you have to understand human emotions and behavior, which means you have to understand how our brains work. And some people just do not find those topics all that interesting.
Fair enough.
Most of us do not get into business to be leaders. We work our way up the latter for the prestige, better pay, stronger authority, and more control over operational management. We do not work our way up the latter to become therapists to our colleagues, subordinates, and sometimes, our superiors. And I hate to break it to you, but that’s kind of what leadership is.
I once asked someone, “What’s the difference between a therapist and a coach?” And he said, “A coach doesn’t tell you what to do.” And I said, “Neither do good therapists.”
Leadership (and apparently therapy), I think, is widely misunderstood. Let’s dive into some examples of how it is different than management:
- Managers tell; leaders ask
- Management is about operations; leadership is about people
- Leaders oversee attitudes and behaviors; managers oversee policies and procedures
- Leaders let their hearts guide; managers let logic dictate
- Managers apply the same rules to everyone; leaders strategize based on employee needs
- Managers punish; leaders provide constructive feedback
The examples above are generalities to emphasize the different approaches and should not necessarily be taken verbatim. It’s important to recognize that not all managers are great leaders and not all leaders are great managers. However, both leadership and management are critical for a company’s ongoing sustainability and success.
Employees are typically good managers, because they’ve spent years becoming good at a job. They do it all day every day and have learned the necessary skills over time. They have a solid base of knowledge and experience that they can anticipate, foresee, enhance, and improve operations for productivity and efficiency. But most people do not spend all day everyday learning the necessary skills of being a good leader. We advance them into the position without a solid base of knowledge and experience where they can anticipate, foresee, enhance, and improve employee performance and team dynamics.
The idea that we can just send our employees to a couple of leadership trainings a year and expect them to improve their leadership skills is, for the most part, a fallacy. You will have some employees who want to help themselves. They will take those trainings seriously and take the initiative to improve. The more likely outcome, however, is that employees will go to the training, return to work, stuff the materials in their desk, and forget everything they learned.
Effective leadership training requires consistent, ongoing engagement, and that’s where our coaching services can better your management team. We have the knowledge, skills, passion, and experience to give your managers the right tools to become great leaders.