Why Leader & Not Manager

What is a "Manager", well the American Heritage Dictionary quantifies a manager as follows;
1. One who handles, controls, or directs, especially:
2. One who directs a business or other enterprise.
3. One who controls resources and expenditures, as of a household.
4. One who is in charge of the training and performance of an athlete or a team.
5. A student who is in charge of the equipment and records of a school or college team.
6. One who is in charge of the business affairs of an entertainer.
Does the above description sound like the primary qualities or characteristics you'd like to have in your leader? Not for me it doesn't. A leader should be 70% leadership focused and 30% management focused. A manager does your review, handles a budget, hires people, and files stuff or reads email. A leader's role is much different, they should inspire a team by setting an achievable agenda and ensuring the team has the resources and environment that will make them successful in their combined pursuit of said agenda. A leader is someone that you would work long hours for because s/he is the person they are, not because they've threatened you or intimidated you.
Definition of "Leader" from the American Heritage Dictionary:
1. One that leads or guides.
2. One who is in charge or in command of others.
There are other definitions as well, but the above are the primary definitions related to the role of Leader among humans.
One that Leads or Guides, that sounds a little bit more like the person I want in charge of me. Unfortunately, in today's IT shop it seems there is a preponderance of the "Manager" type or maybe the "Dilbert" definition type.
The average IT shop like any large diverse organization or team can be very complex. The diversity of cultural backgrounds, skill sets, and job types can be astounding. There is also the added difficulty associated with having a vision that can't and shouldn't be independent from the enterprise. In other words, you are rarely working on something that is for the betterment of your team or function. You also have to recognize that many folks on the team get daily and even hourly feedback from customers and this feedback is generally about problems. This type of feedback requires it's own special type of leadership to team interaction.

An IT organization is much like a company within a company. You often have groups focused on the different verticals of the business and like a company these verticals need to still have a common vision that fits the entire enterprise. Creating and enabling this common vision isn't something that most CIO "managers" are equipped to handle effectively. Most of their experience often comes from running a portion of IT or a Finance team. I don't pretend to know where the best CIO's should come from, but I do believe they should be picked in a similar fashion to a CEO. Now that I've made the correlation between CIO requirements and the CEO job, it might become a little more obvious why I believe our CIOs generally aren't up to the task. I'll ask another rhetorical question. Do you want a CEO that spends most of his or her time focused on the companies finances, or maybe looking into inventory management issues or would you rather have a CEO who understands the entire business well enough to translate it's opportunities and the associated goals into a vision that everyone can wrap their hearts and minds around? A leader who inspires you to want to do more than you thought you were capable of and then rewards you for doing it. A leader that will listen to the entire team to get the best ideas, but will still make the tough decisions without delay. These are the qualities I look for in my leaders. A leader can't be shallow, and they can't be weak, self centered or insecure, any of these characteristics will eventually lead to disaster for the organization in the long run.
More on this topic in the coming days;
- How can you spot the qualities (good or bad) before it's too late?
- Why are the "good" qualities so important and the "bad" so potentially damaging?
- How do you measure yourself against these "good" and "bad" characteristics?
- How is a leader easy to work with, but not weak? Or, how can they appear to show weakness because it comes from strength?
If you have any questions or thoughts on my ramblings, I'd love to hear them.
Until next time.