Saturday, April 09, 2011

Managers and Leaders

I am honoured that my friend JK from Bangalore, India has given me this piece of wisdom to post on my Simplicty Blog - thank you JK.

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Please Read & amp; understand the contrast between the Managers and Leaders and then decide for yourself what would "YOU LIKE TO BE"?????


Managers.                                                            Leaders.
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Says "Go"                                                             Says "Let us Go"


Production oriented.                                             People oriented.


Delegates Responsibilities.                                Maintains Develops.


Shows who is wrong.                                            Shows What is Wrong.


Administers.                                                           Innovates.


A Copy                                                                  The Original.


Asks "How"                                                            Asks "Why" & "What".


Drives Team Members.                                        Trains Team Members.


Imitates.                                                                  Originates.


Accepts the Status-Quo.                                       Challenges the Status-Quo.


Short Term Results.                                                Long Term Vision.


Plans & Budgets.                                           Change & Risks.


Standards.                                                               Values.


Can be appointed.                                                  Should be accepted.


Talks a lot.                                                               Listens a lot.


Tells.                                                                        Asks.
 
Presumes.                                                               Explores.


Seeks control.                                                         Seeks commitment.


Orders.                                                                     Challenges.


Works on.                                                                Works with


Positional Power.                                                    Personal Power.


Keeps distant.                                                          Makes contact.


Says what to do.                                                       Shows how to do.


Demands respect.                                                    Commands respect.


Works in the system.                                                 Works on the system.


Gets the best out of the resources.                          Organises the best resources.


System centric.                                                            People centric.


Professional (IQ).                                                        Emotional (IQ).


Directional.                                                                  Inspirational.


Systematic.                                                                  Charismatic.


Have schemes.                                                            Have dreams.


Says "Some thing must be done".                             Says "I must do some thing."


Doing things Right.                                                       Doing right things.

Moretransactional.                                                        More transcendental.


Creates Fear.                                                               Creates Confidence.


Creates resentment.                                                    Breeds Enthusiasm.


Says "I"                                                                         Says "We"


Fixes blame.                                                                 Fixes mistakes.


Knows "How"                                                               Shows "How"


Drives.                                                                          Leads.


Has Employees.                                                         Has Followers.


People need Managers.                                            People long for Leaders.


And.......................................................................


The Ultimate Leader says.......


"I did it".........whenever some thing go haywire.......says......


"We did it"......whenever something is semi good and says........


"You did it":....whenever everything go Right.

10 comments:

hucknjim said...

Wow Trevor and JK,

Quite a list and will require some thought. Right off the top of my head though, I'd add this. Just as not all managers are leaders, not all leaders are managers. I flatter myself that, by virtue of long experience, I am a leader on my unit. The nurses often look to me for help when they're unsure of what to do about calling a doc or putting an order in the computer. Charge nurses have also said, "I don't worry about that. John takes care of it." This is far from tooting my own horn. I really need to peruse JK's excellent list and think about how I can improve my leadership skills. Thanks.

John

J.KANNAN said...

Thank you John and you are right, it will certainly require some insight and thought to pursue but it's worth the insight and thought........And I only wish it helps my beloved readers and many leaders and Managers.

Thank you for your encouragement and special thanks to trevor posting it in "Simplicity" for then benefit of my beloved Reader friends.

JK

Trevor Gay said...

Hi John

Well said - and I'm not at all surpised you are a leader in your unit.

Leaders are certainly not always the best paid or most senior people in any organisation. Some of the best leaders I met in my healthcare career were engineers, cooks, porters, cleaners and clerks.

Tony Benn - my greatest political hero - said "If you are looking for leaders - don’t look up to a platform - look around you" -

Unsurprisingly I completely agree with Tony!

Dave Wheeler said...

Mr. Kannan,

Exceptional post! I know many who feel there is no difference. I also know they are wrong. I see "management" as simply knowing the basic concepts...how to plan, enagage employees, budget, measure performance, etc. Leaders are those who know how to execute those concepts...and get results. Book sense is easy. Execution isn't. I once got promoted to a wing level position in the Air Force because my team was recognized as a command benchmark for the way we integrated the "concepts" of TQM in the way we did business. The team was the folks who came up with the suggestions amd new ways to do business that saved us over 1300 man hours per month and budget savings that was estimated @ 700k per year. All I did was ask hem what do you think we need to do to prepare for a pending 25% reduction in manpower and 30 percent in budget.

Leadership to me is the Lao Tzu "A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves." You can't get to this by following the Managers column. You get to that place because you execute using the right hand side!

Thanks JK and Trevor! I have always learned a great deal from each of your thoughts and insights

J.KANNAN said...

Dear Mr. Dave,
Thank you very much for your encouraging response which has added yet another feather on my cap. I had my Leadership foundation well laid and developed while I was in Indian Air Force (IAF) commencing during mid 1960s. I was fortunate enough to work with some really good leaders and as a result now..................my work is done, my targets are fulfilled and my aim is achieved with a clear vision ahead. All credit for all these goes fully to my collegues at my work place.

Thank you once again Dave for your inspiration and support.

J.K

JOHN O'LEARY said...

Ditto to the above. Good distinctions. The essence of it for me is that leaders fundamentally respect associates' AUTONOMY. They know how to engage self-motivation.

J.KANNAN said...

Dear John,

I agree with your views in toto and you have rightly said in few words in crisp.....Indeed GREAT John.

JK

Mark JF said...

I'd like to think that I display most of the so-called "leadership" traits but I think of myself as a manager and I am proud of that tag.

It perplexes me that we denigrate the term "manager" and portray it as a mundane, second-rate job. What we've portrayed here as "leadership" is really "good management." A "leader" is often a good manager doing his/her job properly.

We should be making management a valued, meaningful profession and not putting it down. (See Germany for a good example.) It's a job that should have more formal qualifications and a title that shouldn't be dished out quite as promiscuously as it often is.

It seems to me like we've surrendered the term "manager" and accepted that it means "mundane and not very good." And we're now trying to create this job title "Leader" that says you've graduated from the morass of management and moved a step up. Now, that's a good principle but I'd attack it from the other way round: the people who display the characteristics from the left hand column are Controllers or Administrators or Schedulers or whatever. The right hand side describes a Manager.

(And when we've done that, we can address VPs and C-suite officers. Or should that be the other way round?)

J.KANNAN said...

Hi Mark,

Good feedback and impressions.

Very rarely and I would say rarest of rare people effectively plays the role of a good Leader holding Manager's title and you are one amongst and I agree with you Sir.

Title does not matter action and the end results that counts and matters.

JK

Arlene Marie Daniels said...

What a great chart. The items on that list seem very true! Anybody can try to manage but to lead and have influence over others is a different story. According to http://www.depressionatwork.com, managers and leaders alike need to listen carefully to their employees or else suffer the consequences.