Management vs. Leadership

Too often we make the mistake of managing people. We manage things. We lead people.

A leadership coach I used to work with taught me some very important lessons as I started to lead my first team in 2016. Perhaps the most important was that we manage things and we lead people. What happens when we make the mistake of managing people instead of leading people? Well, the people we manage are made to feel like things. When that happens, your team is going nowhere fast.

When we’re responsible for the success of a team, we have two separate objectives — one is to improve quality all the time, reduce variation, measure current job performance and step forward incrementally. We’re managing quality, which is measurable. The other objective is to lead your team and your people individually towards success. This one’s a bit trickier because as human beings we are neither measurable nor objective. We’re complicated and introduce new variables to the management equation like subjectivity, hidden agendas and political games. We cannot manage people like we manage a process — the variables are different and it just won’t work. Instead, with people we need to talk about leadership, not management.

Let’s break down a few key learnings from my experience working with this leadership coach as well as firsthand from leading a team.

Point #1: You design the system. This might sound obvious, but people who strive for the big jobs and live in the big cities do not wake up looking forward to failing. That’s not why they’re coming to work. They’re coming to work and busting their ass to do the very best they can within the system that has been created for them. As a team leader, you are the designer of that system. You are “them” instead of “us.” And it is your responsibility to help your people do their very best within that system. All the parameters, rules, ambitions, culture and even seating arrangements help make up that system. Carefully examine each component part and design a system that sets your people up for success.

If your people are failing, it is also your responsibility to either help them succeed within that system, or diagnose the problem and change the system to solve for it. You are either helping them to do a better job or you are getting in their way. Make sure you and your system are not in their way.

Point #2: You don’t always need to motivate them, you just need to not demotivate them. This is where fixing the system or the environment comes into play. If we’ve hired someone who is naturally motivated to do well and has always overcome obstacles and succeeded in the past, why are they not motivated to do well here?

If this is what you’re asking, take a good look at the systems that you’ve created for them. Where are they physically sitting? What types of projects are they working on? How often are they asking questions? Do they feel socially comfortable within your team or are they struggling to integrate?

At one point, I had three new starters join my team at the same time. The team had gotten large enough to outgrow our “pod” of desks and, as a result, I had to move one of the new starters and her trainer into an adjacent pod. Over the next few months, I found that she was really struggling to hit her sales targets. I thought there may have been a mismatch in coaching and learning styles between her and her trainer or that, perhaps, this just wasn’t the job for her. I made time each week to sit down with her and take a more hands-on approach to her process. We dissected her pipeline metrics, talked through her strategies, she shadowed me on calls and I made a concerted effort each meeting to help her understand how the work she was doing contributed to a greater mission. I wanted her to know that I was there for her and I tried to motivate her to the max. After a few weeks of hands-on coaching, her numbers started to markedly improve.

Even though she was improving, however, I had a feeling that we still weren’t quite there yet. I kept meeting with her week after week until finally one meeting she was comfortable enough to tell me: “Dan, the extra coaching has been great and I’ve learned a lot, but honestly I just feel like I’m not a full member of the team because my trainer and I sit a few desks away.” I had completely underestimated how large of an impact the physical seating would have on her mentality. I knew it wasn’t ideal, but I had no idea that it would actually drag her down.

Later that day, I moved her smack in the middle of the team, I took over her desk and convinced my VP to let me restructure the seating arrangements of all ~40 people in the broader business unit. Fast forward a month and the combination of extra coaching and a desk change had her crushing her targets.

There are very few things within the system that your employees actually have control over (or at least feel they have control over), and it’s important to be aware of the impact the system has on their morale. I didn’t need to motivate her, I just needed to not demotivate her.

Point #3: It should be unbelievably easy to interrupt you. This one is tough to write because of how much I cherish the times when I’ve reached my flow state, but your people should have easy access to you when they’re stuck. I will caveat this by saying that it is very helpful to coach your people to identify real vs. imagined roadblocks (i.e. what do they need you for vs. what do they just want you for). That being said, there’s going to be an implicit boundary around you because you’re their manager, which means that your employees may not want to get too close to you and will overanalyse everything. Even the extent to which you are smiling, for instance, can either invite people in or push them away. Given this boundary, it’s important that you also understand and can anticipate when your employees are going to need you, rather than relying on them to always identify whether their request for help is a need or a want.

People need you when there’s an exception and something has gone wrong, not when things are going smoothly and according to plan. If at that point you’re not available, it’s likely that they will get frustrated and demotivated. This doesn’t mean that you need to be glued to your desk, but if you’re not there your employees should know when and where they can find you. A resource that they don’t know how, where or when to approach will not be helpful to them.

Point #4: Square up. And no, I’m not talking about how you should play defence in basketball. When your employees do come to you with questions, your response to them asking a question is of equal importance as your answer to the question itself. Physically turn and face them, make eye contact and respond by portraying genuine curiosity and helpfulness. Square up and let them know that they have your full attention and that, in that moment, they are the most important thing to you. Once they trust that they can come to you and know how, where and when to do so, they’ll be more comfortable, stop coming to you all the time and save the interruptions for the most important things.

In the initial meetings you have with your team and the daily meetings you will have with them thereafter, if they feel through both your words and your behaviour that you actually care about them and that it’s in your best interest for them to do better, good things will follow. You should plan to start these relationships this way and then give some autonomy so your employees can control their own destiny.

Point #5: Delegate within reason

There are multiple levels of delegation, which go from fully dependent to fully autonomous. When we are leading a team, begin delegating at the lower levels and give responsibility in small pieces. From the very first meeting, give everyone things to do and make it clear that they have the authority to make decisions.

Example: “This isn’t just my team, this is our team. What do we want to stand for? What do we like? What do we want to change?”

The leadership coach I worked with told a story about coaching a little league soccer team. The regular coach was absent that game, so he filled in. Instead of making all the rules, he started off by having the whole team run a lap of the field. The first 11 to finish were the first 11 on the field to start the game.

That was it.

After that, he didn’t make the decisions — he just asked questions and let them solve from there. The 11 on the field figured out who would play which positions, who from the bench would substitute in and at what times, and all of the operational aspects of running the team. There was no need for him to do all of that himself if they could handle that responsibility and grow from it. His job was to oversee and make adjustments when necessary, and help solve the difficult problems that they could not solve. These problems are the exceptions.

In this example, he’s not coaching them — he’s asking questions and they’re coaching themselves. “What else do you think we should be doing?” “How else can we score more goals (i.e. improve quantity, quality, etc.)?” He expects his team to tell him, then only if nothing comes to mind will he tell them.

When your team is coming up with the suggestions and you agree, they’re going to listen to themselves and have confidence in their decision making and judgment.

As a leader, part of your job is figuring out how to get everyone else on your team into your spot. The faster that you can replace yourself as a manager and leader, the faster the business will scale and you’ll earn more senior responsibilities. Get them to a point where they’re managing themselves. Your job is to handle the exceptions.

Final Thoughts:

Keep a finger on the pulse and keep improving. In 1-on-1s, explicitly ask your employees what else we should be doing, as well as what else you should be doing. Tell them that you can’t guarantee you’ll action their suggestions, but you can guarantee that you’ll consider their ideas and continue to rely on them to give feedback.

Lastly, look at everyone as if they’re unlimited. They’re going to be amazing and fantastic, and you’re fortunate enough to help them for this small part of their journey. Make sure they feel that you believe they’re important, can be successful and it’s just a question of hard work.

Thanks for reading. If you’d like to chat more or are seeking 1-on-1 coaching or consulting, email me at dcdiscovers@gmail.com.