Management is a Job, Leadership is a Lifestyle
By Sean Leary
With all the hubbub out there on the interwebs about being a leader and not a manager/boss, I thought I’d throw my two cents in the mix and offer a little clarity on the whole thing.
Right now management is being branded as a negative thing. But the current memes and tropes are giving a false equivalency between this and ‘leadership’, which is just all around confusing the issue.
You’re probably thinking, “What? Sean, I heard that ‘management’ is ineffective and all the new buzz is ‘leadership’ all the way!!!”
I understand. The problem is that the people making that comparison think they’re comparing apples to apples, but it’s more like cheese to cheeseburgers.
Now you say, “Sean, you have lost you mind!”
No, no, no, hear me out.
Let’s look at the Webster’s Definition of both:
Management (noun):
1) The art or act of managing
2) Judicious use of means to accomplish an end
3) The collective body of those who manage or direct an enterprise
Awesome, it’s another one of those ambiguous words. The definition we’re really concerned with here is the first: The art or act of managing. It doesn’t tell us much so let’s dive to the root word, ‘manage’. There are several definitions for ‘manage’ out there, all depending on context, such as, “I think I can manage to read this article,” or “I can manage eating this entire pizza on my own, thank you!” I think you get the gist.
What I’m concerned about is ‘manage’ in the context of managing people, teams, and careers.
Manage (verb): To exercise executive, administrative, and supervisory direction of.
This is the ‘manage’ that we talk about in conjunction with leadership.
See? It’s very straightforward — to manage something, is to take care of something. That my friend, is a job.
Now, let’s take a look at ‘leadership’.
Leadership (noun):
1) The office or position of a leader
2) Capacity to lead
3) The act or an instance of leading
Damn, another ambiguous word! That’s ok, like ‘management’, we’re going to get to the root of the word to understand just what the hell we’re talking about here. The act or instance of leading. It’s very similar to manage when it comes to context, i.e. “I’m working on a sales lead,” or “Are there any leads on the pizza theft case (we think it may be Sean).”
The relevant definition here is the third, leading people and situations.
Lead (verb): To guide someone or something along a way.
So, now that we have that straightened out…
I know, you’re thinking: “Dude! What the heck is straightened out? I’m more confused now than I was when I started!”
Stick with me, we’re getting to the good part!
Here’s the deal, in a management/leadership role (unfortunately we just have to deal with it being called that for the moment) you’re going to have to do both. You can’t have a cheeseburger without cheese and management is the cheese here.
The definition of management is task-based, it’s a physical act of doing something.
You say, “What?!?!”
Management is the tasks performed to carry out your role as a supervisor. It’s setting 1:1s with your reports, it’s checking on timelines and quality — it’s the job part.
Let’s take the role of Software Manager (you can substitute software for anything, Pizza Manager is a good alternative). You don’t really have to know a lot about software to be an effective software manager.
I know, I know, you’re thinking, “Sean! You’re killing me here! How on earth can you be a manager of software and not have extensive software experience?!?!?”
In all honesty, you really don’t. The act and job of being a manager stays the same regardless. You’re really managing people, making sure they show up on time, get their work done (and well), manage reviews and vacations, and all the fun stuff that comes with managing. It’s task oriented. Managing is a job with a job description and there are measurable metrics that can be used to assess whether or not someone is actually managing.
Now you say, “Ahhhhhh! I think I’m starting to get it but, what about leadership? How is this a lifestyle?”
Good question, to guide someone or something along the way, as the definition states …Give that a thought for a second… Sure, you can put some metrics against leadership: Did everyone get to the destination? Was the project on time? Do people follow? While they’re metrics, they’re a tad more nebulous.
Leadership isn’t about a to-do list of action items, it’s the experience of the leader that dictates how effective the leading is going to be
You just said, “HUH?!?!” didn’t you?
Stay with me, it’ll make sense in a sec.
Let’s take a hypothetical example from a tour guide. The tour guide has to get to all of the places on the tour and to the destinations on time. That’s easy, they have maps, a bus, and a group of tourists.
Let’s look at the management aspect.
The tour guides management aspect is pretty simple, make sure the bus has gas, make sure the maps are accurate, take note of when destinations open, and plan the tour accordingly. A person with no experience can manage this tour very easily. While having experience with the destinations on the tour is a nice-to-have, it’s not required for the tour guide to manage getting everyone from place to place in a timely manner.
That’s the job aspect of it, step by step, do ‘a’ to get to ‘b’, ‘b’ to get to ‘c’. It’s not that hard and it’s certainly not that exciting. But what happens when events, as they do, don’t work out as planned? What if the tourists have questions about the destination? What if there’s a closure? An inexperienced tour guide could probably work from a script but, could they get to a good alternate destination if a site was closed? Maybe, but probably not.
Let’s take a look at the leadership aspect of all this. Leadership comes from experience. It comes from having been there and done that. That’s why it’s a lifestyle, not a job.
You’re thinking, “Sean, that’s a big stretch…”
No, really it’s not!
Here’s the deal: Let’s go back to our tour guide…They’ve been on the job for a couple of years now, and they know the tour like the back of their hand. They don’t need a map, they know exactly how much gas they need, and they know the best spots for all conditions. They have this down right?
Now, when leading the tourists on the bus, they not only manage to get to the sites, they lead the tourists to the best parts to make sure they have the best experience ever. They have backstories and reasons for why this tour is the best tour ever. With two years of collected knowledge and love for the job, the tour guide not only manages to get everyone everywhere, they lead the experience to make sure uninteresting sections are avoided, and the best places are accentuated with history and meaning. These are really lucky tourists.
The tour guide is still managing. The job part hasn’t changed at all What’s changed is that they now have life experience, and have hopefully grown, and can use that to lead.
“Ok, I get it now. BUT, what if the tour guide never bothered to learn the tour like that? What happens if they’re really just showing up for a paycheck and some sun time?”
Hey, that happens, I’m not going to lie, and it happens often. What happens to people who don’t grow? They stagnate, their line of tourists diminishes and, eventually, they fade out. After all, who wants a crappy, apathetic tour guide?
You’re likely saying to yourself, “I still don’t get how this is a lifestyle thing!
Ok, let’s switch to real life.
We’ve all had managers, good, bad, and if you’re lucky some that were outright amazing and who changed your life. All of them were managers with the title to match. Let’s compare the mediocre/bad to the best our lives had to offer.
Like I said, we’re comparing cheese to cheeseburgers. When we’re talking about the average manager, we’re talking about one slice of orange cheese (just orange). They get the job done, because they get the job part. They may even do the job part to the tee, but it’s still just a slice of generic orange cheese.
When you ADD leadership, you’re getting the cheeseburger in all it’s delicious glory (I’m writing this before lunch clearly). The cheese is still there! The job aspect never goes away and it shouldn’t. We still need to do those tasks, we still need to manage. Leadership is all the rest of the stuff that comes with the cheeseburger (it can be a veggie burger with vegan cheese if you like, as long as it’s tasty). The bun, the pickles, the tomato, everything!
If this is running through your mind, “Sean, you just made me hungry, I’m still not getting it!” then let’s look at the amazing, life-changing managers we’ve had. What made them so amazing? Why were they so damn compelling? They led me to the water and I drank it!!!
It’s quite simple, really. Those amazing leaders and icons lived it! They didn’t just show up and collect a paycheck, they showed up, grew, failed, grew more, made mistakes, grew, got their proverbial s#$t together and gained experience. It’s a lifestyle of growth, learning, and an insatiable hunger for life and everything it has to offer! IT’S A LIFESTYLE!!!
This is generalizing a bit, but think about it: Would you follow someone who doesn’t live like that? Would you really invest and put your life and career in the hands of someone who lives by just showing up? I really hope the answer to that is “No.”
In closing, it’s not really fair to compare management to leadership. Yes, they both live separately and when put together they can make for some amazing life-changing stuff, but it’s still an error to compare them. Cheese is not intrinsically attached to a burger, you can remove the cheese and you still have a really good burger, the same applies to a manager, it’s a job. You can remove the title manager from a person, if that person lives a leadership lifestyle, they will always be a leader.
The point that I’m driving home here is leadership does not equal management. Leadership is a lifestyle that you should, no you MUST, apply to any job you do, not just management.
Sean Leary is a renaissance man, a Leader, engineer, maker, writer, musician, and magician. He’s a restorer of things old and a creator of the new. In short, Sean doesn’t do downtime. He’s also an Engineering Manager at TribalScale.
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