More Leading, less managing

What is leadership and what is management? I’ve noticed we can use these two terms interchangeably but I would argue that they are different skills.

The oxford english dictionary unhelpfully defines ‘leadership’ as: the action of leading a group of people or an organisation (mmm it doesn’t define leading here)  and ‘management’ as: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people.

I would explain leadership as the ability to inspire, guide, create change and create impact - people focussed.  I would define management as implementing and controlling the systems and rules - process focussed. The research in this field would back me up.  During my career when I had a large team and numerous direct reports I realised that I love leading and dislike managing!  What about you? What does your workplace culture require of you?

What I sometimes notice with employees and managers is that managing can start to become a parent-child relationship  where people can give up their power to their manager in terms of instructions, decision making and even responsibility for career progression.  Employees ask permission from their manager on their leave dates or if they need to leave early and they also escalate the minutiae of problems.  This kind relationship dynamic does not make for creative, innovative environments where people flourish.  On the other hand if you take a leadership approach and create a safe and courageous space with appropriate boundaries for your team then people have the autonomy to make their own decisions, solve problems.  This is great for self development, finding people’s strengths and great for wellbeing.  What that meant for me was coaching my team to make their own decisions and solve their challenges supported by me rather than creating a dependency on me to resolve things.  That is because I fundamentally believe that everyone is capable.

So what does managing less and leading more look like? 

CoCreative Leadership is all about creating these kind of leaders - one’s who lead more and manage less. 

To find out more you can sign up my FREE CoCreative Leadership masterclass on 24th April.