Manager or Leader? Don’t Aspire to be Either.

A trip through the many management blogs and discussion forums out there inevitably involves an encounter with the debate over whether or not individuals should aspire to be leaders or managers, or which one is a loftier ambition than the other.  Most people indicate that some combination is required for success, that the skills and talents of leadership are balanced against those of management.

The trouble with these perspectives is that they ignore that people can aspire to be something else entirely – something that enables growth, teamwork, accountability and the accumulation of knowledge.  In short, what we need to encourage is the development of teachers.

Teachers enforce rules, train others, share information, transfer knowledge, devise schemes, plan tasks, respond to questions, help people, maintain order and listen to problems.  In short, they both lead and manage.  In order to do both, they need to be equal parts Facilitator, Collaborator, and Mentor.

The Facilitator:

The facilitator’s purpose is to make sure people get the resources they need to do what they need to get done.  This can be material resources, or time, or capital or even other people.  The facilitator also removes the roadblocks that prevent tasks from being accomplished.  By accomplishing these two things, the facilitator demonstrates three critical characteristics that can be taught to others:

• Ingenuity:  Refusing to accept the status quo and creatively approaching problems in order develop new solutions
• Resourcefulness:  Making due with whatever is available rather than waiting for the solution to present itself
• Perseverance:  Doggedly pursuing the best possible outcome

The Collaborator:

While the facilitator’s purpose is to make the job easier to do, the collaborator’s purpose is to assist with the development of solutions through the application of knowledge.  A Collaborator must be:

• Humble:  It is necessary to have the ability to say, “I don’t know.”  Admitting you don’t have the answer to a problem is the first step to building teams.  If you always have the answer, there’s no need to develop a team to go and find the solution.
• Creative: Demonstrating that you truly have ways to approach and solve problems that others haven’t thought of will lead to people seeking your advice.
• Informative: When people come to you seeking information, be prepared to share it.  Transferring knowledge is critical for both personal and organizational development.

The Mentor:

The Facilitator makes the job easier and the Collaborator assists with developing solutions.  The Mentor, however, forms a personal bond with those around him/her.  In these relationships, mentors act to influence a person’s actions and deepen their understanding of themselves.  To do this, a Mentor must be provide:

• Counseling:  Providing counsel requires not the giving of answers, but offering guidance on the pros and cons of a decision.
• Coaching: Giving constant feedback, good or bad, for actions and behaviors helps to assure people that they are either on the right track, or in need of a course correction, and allows them the time to change.
• Advising: Mentors need to share their own past experiences in order to allow others to learn from them and grow beyond the Mentor’s level of ability

The actions undertaken in any of these three roles are designed to accomplish one thing:  Building trust in your organization.  If you have a person’s trust, they will follow you, and if you trust them, many of your management challenges will be removed.

Becoming a leader or a manager is not what we should aspire to.  They are, instead, the side-effects of constantly being a trusted, knowledgeable and helpful resource dedicated to enhancing the abilities of others.

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Tags: Leadership, Management, teaching