You should know that management and leadership are two different things. Leadership creates passionate and focused people. Management creates competent and productive people. 

We don’t manage people. We manage processes – and we lead people. 

When processes are in place, there’s something to manage. And while we don’t manage people, we can and should manage their accountability. We should also make clear the expectations everyone must have for their role, and what their role consists of. 

Every organization needs good management and good leadership. Good management practices are not intuitive, however. Organizations need to use proven methods to teach managers fundamental and established managerial techniques. These involve such nuts and bolts as:

• Selecting the right people for the team, 
• delegating, 
• flexibility, and 
• excellent verbal and non-verbal communication skills. 

Fundamental managerial techniques also include managing communication processes, such as daily huddles, one-on-one meetings, weekly team meetings, training, and providing feedback. 

Good managers know how to make meetings worthwhile. Meetings have a bad reputation. Most people hate them. But they can and should be effective if you conduct them properly. Excellent managers review goals and actions by scheduling regular meetings to dig deep into issues, solve challenges, make decisions, update the status of action plans, and set priorities for specific periods of time. 

Managers also recognize the abilities of team members and allow them to take ownership of and responsibility for their respective jobs.

Effective managers facilitate the process of team members in creating individual 90-day action plans that outline their actions and important time-frames. This provides clarity about when specific actions need to be completed. Managers have weekly or biweekly face-to-face, or one-to-one meetings, with individual team members to talk about progress on their 90-day action plans. 

As you can see, a good manager is proactively helpful to the people they oversee.

Important actions of proactive managers include

• providing feedback to team members;
• identifying goals;
• acting  as role models;
• delegating;
• communicating;
• listening;
• motivating;
• setting clear expectations;
• learning and adjusting;
• and recognizing team members.

Excellent managers review goals and actions by incorporating a process, habits, and routines… Proper management balances processes and people, efficiency, and humanity, without jeopardizing either one.

Our discussion today has demonstrated the importance of understanding the difference between leadership and management. By understanding these distinct approaches, we can ensure our success as a team. Leadership is about creating passionate and focused people; management is about creating competent and productive individuals. A successful organization requires both responsibilities. As you apply these concepts to your day-to-day operations, keep in mind that teamwork is essential – working together toward a common goal will always yield results. Remember, we don’t manage people—we lead them toward higher levels of performance and job satisfaction. If you want to further explore this topic or are looking for guidance with your organization’s development, contact us today; we’d love to help you out! Let’s work together to create an environment of excellence!