All leaders, regardless of industry, the type of work done, the title on their business cards, face people, process, and tool situations and challenges that they must lead their teams through. It’s essential to understand the distinction between leadership and management.
What is Leadership?
In general, leadership is about influencing and inspiring others to act, while management focuses on maintaining systems and processes. Management is defined as ‘getting things done through others.’ The best leaders make every possible effort to make it their mission to remove obstacles that prevent employees from doing their jobs. They also obtain the resources and training that they need to do their jobs effectively.
Consistency is Key
Great leaders are consistent performers, and their ability to execute is because of following specific processes. To be successful as a manager/leader, you must have proper planning, organization, leadership, and follow-up skills. All leaders need to excel at the following:
- Organizing others
- Motivating others through superb communication skills
- Be adept at measuring performance
- Developing others, including themselves
- Remain responsible for ensuring that team members contribute to delivering results
Remember This
Remember, it’s not the manager’s position that makes the leader; it’s the person who makes the leader/position. For instance, if you, as a leader, don’t have the right amount of leverage or influence over others, you’ll be ineffective. If, as a leader, you lack confidence in your abilities, talent, or decision-making, then your followers will require commitment. Successful leaders are judged not entirely by their actions but by how well their people consistently demonstrate superior performance. The better you are at making sure you’re doing what you should be doing as a leader, the better chance you have to impact others and be successful.
Understanding Your Mission
A mission is a plan of action for reaching a goal. Two key questions a manager should ask themselves when they set out to lead:
- What am I expected to accomplish?
- What can I accomplish that is unexpected?
To the first point, you need to know what others expect you take on daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, and so on. You must deliver results.
On the second point, to maximize your value and that of your team, you must continually innovate and do the impossible. That’s what drives creativity, engagement, and stellar performance. Anything unexpected that moves your group well beyond the minimum attracts attention.
Success follows success, and like a magnet, it also attracts resources and talented new members to your team. As a leader, your mission is to make your team, department, or group a winner, not just a contender. Aim to make sure you are on the right side of winning every time. Set up those you lead for success.
Leadership Processes Are About Making Choices
Leaders make choices. From the mundane to the monumental, the decisions made by leaders make a huge difference. These choices provide direction, resources, inspiration, and motivation too. Generally, the choices leaders make can fall into three buckets choosing:
- Goals and targets
- Missions
- People
Making decisions is so important. It is pertinent that you consider the following as you make decisions about anything that impacts your team so that everyone can benefit (win/win) without undue stress:
- The skills and experience of your team
- Their ability of your team to work effectively together
- The resources you and your team have available
- The competition for those resources you might face
- The reason ‘why’ for the choices made and ‘how’ you need to communicate to stakeholders
You’re their manager, leader, supervisor, executive, etc., and all eyes are on you. You’re expected to deliver results and make choices, and not all will be easy. Are you up to the challenge as this is where you need to walk the talk?
