SECTION III LEAD-UP PRINCIPLE 4

Lead-Up Principle #4

DO MORE THAN MANAGE—LEAD!

People sometimes ask me to explain the difference between management and leadership. Here’s my take on it in a nutshell: Managers work with processes—leaders work with people. Both are necessary to make an organization run smoothly, but they have different functions.
To understand what I mean, think about some of the things that must happen on a military ship for it to function properly. The ship must be navigated, fueled, and supplied. It has various weapons systems that must be kept in good working order. The routine maintenance on a ship is endless, and there are dozens of processes related to the personnel onboard the ship.
All of these are processes that must be overseen. There are procedures that must be followed, schedules that must be created, inventories that must be maintained. These things will never happen without people to manage them. And if they are not managed, the ship will never be capable of fulfilling its purpose.
So what is the role of leaders? Leaders lead the people who manage the processes. If all the work in an organization were performed by machines, and the processes were monitored and controlled by computers, that organization wouldn’t need any leaders. But people do the work and manage the processes, and people don’t function like machines. They have feelings. They think. They have problems, hopes, and dreams. Though people can be managed, they would much rather be led. And when they are led, they perform at a much higher level.
I have yet to meet a good leader who wasn’t also a good manager. They begin by managing themselves well. Once they do that well, they learn how to manage within their area of expertise. Then they add to that the skills needed to work with and influence others. They learn to understand the dynamics of leadership. As Tom Mullins said, “Leaders must be good managers, but most managers are not necessarily good leaders.”
“Leaders must be good managers, but most managers are not necessarily good leaders.”
—TOM MULLINS

Leadership is more than management. Leadership is:

• People more than projects
• Movement more than maintenance
• Art more than science
• Intuition more than formula
• Vision more than procedure
• Risk more than caution
• Action more than reaction
• Relationships more than rules
• Who you are more than what you do

If you want to influence others, then you must learn to lead.
MOVING BEYOND MANAGEMENT
If you are already good at doing your work and managing processes, you’re on the road toward leadership. But to move beyond management to leadership, you need to broaden your mind-set and begin thinking like a leader. If you are already leading well, then use this as a checklist to see where you need to keep growing.
1. LEADERS THINK LONGER TERM
Many people in organizations don’t look ahead. They’re like the person who said, “My department has a short-range plan and a long-range plan. Our short-range plan is to stay afloat long enough to start working on our long-range plan.” But 360-Degree Leaders focus on more than just the task at hand and see more than just the current moment. They look ahead, whether it be a few hours, a few days, or a few years.
By necessity, managers often have to live in the moment. They are working to keep everything running smoothly. Someone once pointed out that managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing. In other words, leaders have a responsibility to make sure the right things are being done so that the organization will thrive tomorrow as well as today.
Most people evaluate events in their lives according to how they will be personally affected. Leaders think within a broader context.

That requires long-term thinking. While good managers may keep the production line working at low cost and peak efficiency, it would be of no value if that production line was still churning out rotary telephones!
2. LEADERS SEE WITHIN THE LARGER CONTEXT
Most people evaluate events in their lives according to how they will be personally affected. Leaders think within a broader context. They start by asking themselves, How will this impact my people? But then they also look at how something will impact those above and beside them. They try to see everything in terms of the entire organization and beyond.
Effective leaders know the answers to the following questions:

• How do I fit in my area or department?
• How do all the departments fit into the organization?
• Where does our organization fit in the market?
• How is our market related to other industries and the economy?

And as industries in our economy become more global, many good leaders are thinking even more broadly!
You don’t have to become a global economist to lead effectively from the middle of your organization. The point is that 360-Degree Leaders see their area as part of the larger process and understand how the pieces of the larger puzzle fit together. If you desire to be a better leader, then broaden your thinking and work at seeing things from a larger perspective.
3. LEADERS PUSH BOUNDARIES
People are trained to follow rules from the time they are kids: Stand in line. Do your homework. Put your hand up to ask a question. Most rules are good because they keep us from living in chaos. And most processes are governed by rules. You drop a brick from a second-story window, and you know it’s going to fall to the ground. You forget to place the order for office supplies, and you run out of staples. It’s simple cause and effect.
Managers often rely on rules to make sure the processes they oversee stay on track. In fact, self-management, which I discussed in Principle #1 of this section, is basically having the discipline to follow through with the rules you set for yourself. But to move beyond management, you have to learn to think outside the box.
Leaders push boundaries. They desire to find a better way. They want to make improvements. They like to see progress. All these things mean making changes, retiring old rules, inventing new procedures. Leaders are constantly asking, “Why do we do it this way?” and saying, “Let’s try this.” Leaders want to take new territory, and that means crossing boundaries.
4. LEADERS PUT THE EMPHASIS ON INTANGIBLES
The things that people can manage are usually tangible and measurable. They provide concrete evidence. You can logically evaluate them before making decisions.
Leadership is really a game of intangibles. What could be more intangible than influence? Leaders deal with things like morale, motivation, momentum, emotions, attitudes, atmosphere, and timing. How do you measure timing before you do something? How do you put your finger on momentum? It’s all very intuitive. To gauge such things, you have to read between the lines. Leaders have to become comfortable—more than that, confident—dealing with such things.
Many times the problems leaders face in organizations are not the real problems. For example, let’s say a department is $100,000 over budget at the end of the quarter. Their problem isn’t a money problem. The deficit is only evidence of the problem. The real problem may be the morale of the sales force, or the timing of a product launch, or the attitude of the department’s leader. A leader needs to learn to focus on such things.
I love the way retired army general Tommy Franks has disciplined himself to look at intangibles and get ready for them. Every day of his career since February 23, 1988, he has approached his work by looking ahead for the day. In the morning, he places a blank three-by-five card near his calendar and writes on one side of it the date and the words “The biggest challenges I may face today.” Beneath it he writes the five most important problems he might face. On the back of the card, he writes, “Opportunities that may appear today,” and lists those.
Franks said, “Every morning since that Thursday in February 1988, I noted the ‘Challenges and Opportunities’ that might occur on that day. More than five thousand cards later, I still do. The card itself isn’t important; preparing myself for each day definitely is.”1
5. LEADERS LEARN TO RELY ON INTUITION
How do leaders learn to work with intangibles? They learn to rely on their intuition. I love what psychologist Joyce Brothers said, “Trust your hunches. They’re usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level.” The more you focus your attention on intangibles instead of tangibles, on principles instead of practices, the more information you will be filing away for future use, and the sharper your intuition will become. Intuition alone may not be enough to go on, but you should never ignore your intuition.
“Trust your hunches. They’re usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level.”
—JOYCE BROTHERS

Business professor, consultant, and leadership guru Warren Bennis said, “A part of whole-brain thinking includes learning to trust what Emerson called the ‘blessed impulse,’ the hunch, the vision that shows you in a flash the absolutely right thing to do. Everyone has these visions; leaders learn to trust them.”
6. LEADERS INVEST POWER IN OTHERS
Management is often about control. Managers have to control costs, control quality, control efficiency. That’s one reason why some good managers have a difficult time making the paradigm shift to leadership. Leading isn’t about controlling; it’s about releasing.
Good leaders give their power away. They look for good people, and they invest in them to the point where they can be released and empowered to perform. That process is not smooth. It is often messy, and it cannot be controlled. The better the leaders, the more delighted they are to see members of the team finding their own new ways to get things done. And in the case of the best leaders . . . if some of the people outshine the leaders who empowered them, then all the better.
7. LEADERS SEE THEMSELVES AS AGENTS OF CHANGE
Psychologist and author Charles Garfield said:

Peak performers . . . do not see accomplishments as a fixed state, nor as a safe haven in which the individual is moored, completed, finished. Not once have I heard a peak performer speak of an end to challenge, excitement, curiosity, and wonder. Quite the contrary. One of the most engaging characteristics is an infectious talent for moving into the future; generating new challenges, living with a sense of “more work to be done.”2

The same things can be said of leaders. They don’t want things to stay the same. They desire innovation. They love new challenges. They want more than just seeing progress—they want to help make it happen.

Leadership is a moving target, and it always will be. If you desire to become a better leader, get comfortable with change. And if you want to lead up, learn to think like a leader. Think people, think progress, and think intangibles.