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A-Z of Business: L – Leadership-v-Management: Are You a Manager or a Leader?

How do you know if you are a manager or a leader? 

There are few job titles with the word “leader” in them.  Manager or Director (depending on your level of seniority) seem to be the titles of choice – Customer Services Manager, Finance Director, Marketing Manager, Human Resources Director, etc.  Yet, the title is not an indication.  Being a manager is as important as leadership.  However, without leadership, you are missing a crucial element in business success – winning people’s hearts and minds.

Management can be thought of as being the ‘nuts and bolts’ of your role, with duties such as:

  • Planning
  • Allocating resources
  • Organising and co-ordinating
  • Controlling and directing
  • Measuring and evaluating
  • Solving problems
  • Short term thinking for managers, medium-term thinking for directors
  • Managing systems and procedures
  • Maintaining
  • Concerned with the “when” and “how”

All of these are absolutely essential and create a framework, structure and systems to achieve results which are monitored and course-corrected on a regular basis.

A leader, by contrast will be more of a visionary and will motivate and inspire people to follow.  Their focus will be on the long-term and they will be concerned with:

  • Establishing a vision
  • Inspiring co-operation and trust
  • Developing ideas and people
  • Concerned with the “what” and “why”

Creating a vision will usually require change and a good leader will inspire the team to be motivated for that change which might otherwise be met with resistance.  A leader paints a picture that people want to be part of and want to help make happen.

Managers deal with “shoulds” (the realms of necessity) while leaders deal with “coulds” (the realms of possibility).

Of course, leadership and management are not mutually exclusive.  There is a lot of overlap between the two.  A good leader will need good management qualities.  A good manager will require good leadership qualities.  If you tend to be a good leader but are not good at the planning, implementation and problem solving, it’s essential to have a very good, reliable and loyal team to do this for you.  If you are a good manager without the leadership qualities, you will need a good leader managing you to help you pass on the vision to your team.  Both skills can be learned and, with both skills, you will be a rounded professional contributing fully to the success of your team and your business.

And, to close, off, the wonderful Stephen Covey said “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”  You have to have your vision right, otherwise you are managing the wrong things.

If you would like to have greater insight into your leadership and management skills, book a psychometric profile session.  This helps overcome blind spots and highlights development opportunities for you.  Call 0845 130 0854 to find out more.

© Tricia Woolfrey 2012

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

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A-Z of Business: I – Influencing Skills

The ability to positively influence others with integrity is a key skill in business.  It affects your ability to have people buy into you, your business, your product and your ideas.  It impacts your leadership style and your ability to build constructive relationships.  It can also be incredibly stressful if you are unable to influence people constructively, impacting your productivity, your sales and even your profitability.

Influence is about your ability to have a positive effect on someone.  It differs from manipulation in that it is undertaken with integrity and regard to the interest of the other party.   It’s about having people buy in to your ideas and perspectives, so that they say ‘yes’ to you more.

The talent for influence requires flexibility in style, clarity of outcome, the ability to understand a situation from several perspectives, and creating and maintaining a resourceful state, particularly during times of conflict, or when the stakes are high.

It is not about imposing but inspiring someone to take a particular action, while maintaining strong rapport and building positive relationships.

There are numerous language patterns which enhance your capacity to increase your powers of influence which are too numerous to go into in this short article but which I teach to many of my clients and which I include on my Influencing Skills training course.  The issue, though, is not what the skills are, but the effect that they can have on your success.  They can help you deal with objections and concerns so that you are able to transform potentially negative situations elegantly. It’s the YES factor!

 

Whether your intention is to create change, elicit support or diffuse potentially contentious situations, influencing skills can be a real boon to you in your business.

For further details, please contact Tricia Woolfrey on 0345 130 0854.

© Tricia Woolfrey 2012

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

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A-Z of Business: E – Employees: The Ten Fundamentals for Motivated and Productive Staff

Employees can make or break your business.  Finding the right ones, putting them in the right roles and keeping them motivated can feel like a full time job in itself.  Making poor hiring decisions and mismanaging your employees is alarmingly expensive, and can influence the morale of the rest of your team, as well as having a detrimental impact on your business and your time.  Here are my ten fundamentals to get you started:

  1. When hiring, be clear about the skills, knowledge, attitudes and motivations you want from the individual.  If they don’t have the right attitude, no matter how skilful a leader you are, keeping them focussed, productive and positive will be a drain on your energy, your team and your business.
  2. Being clear about what motivates an individual helps you match them to your vacancy.  An extrovert will not thrive in an isolated role; a big thinker will make expensive errors in a job requiring lots of detail work.  Their motivation will drop quicker than you can say “job satisfaction”.
  3. An effective interview process ensures that you treat every applicant equally, you leave no stone unturned and that you are making a balanced business decision, rather than reacting to their charm at interview.  Charm over substance is never a good hiring strategy.  In addition, many hiring decisions are based on urgent need – consequences are not considered until they are experienced in glorious and painful high definition.
  4. Make sure you involve the right people in your interview process.  Having input and feedback from people who will be working with the new recruit is invaluable – not just to have a second opinion, but also to make sure they buy into the hiring decision.
  5. A comprehensive induction process will make sure your new hire gets up to speed and feels part of the company as quickly as possible.  Things to consider are:  computer, phone and desk (yes, some people forget to plan these for new recruits!); meeting work colleagues, other departments, learning about the company, it’s products, values, processes and procedures, what to do and where to go if there are any problems.
  6. Make sure your new recruit is pre-announced to the rest of the team so they are expecting them and can extend a warm welcome.  I have seen new-hires feel shunned because their team-members were not expecting them and didn’t understand the reason for them joining.
  7. Have regular 1:1s to discuss progress, plans and projects.  It is also a good time to discuss any concerns they have and, do please make sure you take action promised – it can be very demoralising otherwise.  1:1s, well run, are hugely motivational and can be a great way of increasing confidence, productivity and motivation.
  8. Delegate well.  To do this, you need to understand the skillset and motivation levels of each individual member of your team.  Some people need a lot of support and direction, others will require more autonomy.  Delegation is not about abdication, nor does it involve micro-management.  It’s about giving them what they need to perform well.  This is a complex and important area that could benefit from a several blogs in its own right.
  9. Know when to take remedial action.  A disciplinary – formal or otherwise – is about improvement.  Inaction can make a bad problem worse as the employee believes that poor performance is acceptable.  Worse, fellow-employees may also see that this is the new standard they can relax into.  Worse still, if you decide to dismiss someone after a period of inaction, it may be difficult to prove your case in a tribunal.  Dealing with problems as they arise is essential.
  10. Develop your individuals.  You need to develop them in the right way, in the right things.  You can develop them through training, coaching, increased responsibility, new projects, and secondments.

Hiring and managing employees is highly rewarding when done well.  It is, however, a minefield.  If you are even slightly concerned, or are not getting the results you want, do seek support.  With the right structures and skills in place, you can experience the rewards on several levels:  a better relationship with your staff, an empowered and motivated workforce, happier customers, greater profit and a reputation as being an employer of choice.

To your success.

Tricia Woolfrey

PS For help with hiring the right people and effective people management and development call 0845 130 0854.  This is not something you want to leave to chance.

© Tricia Woolfrey 2012

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

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