More than the looks

By Carolyn Cohen
Illustration: John Sapsford

Leadership and management are more than optics or personality, they are about job descriptions

If you contacted 100 people at this moment, the likelihood is great  that the vast majority of them would say leaders are more valuable than managers, or given the choice of hiring one or the other for their organization, they would choose a leader. Maybe you too would be of that mindset. Of course, you are entitled to that view, but there are other ideas that may be worthy of your consideration.

Many would describe an ideal leader as a visionary with charisma: someone who sees the future as he or she gazes out the window; someone who inspires others to follow him or her not because he or she asks but because it just makes sense to do so.

What about managers? Too often, we think of them as people with their heads down, plodding away, dealing with the enormous amount of minutiae that crosses their desks every day. We might see them as the boss looking over our shoulders, waiting to catch us doing something wrong.

It is as if you picked all the dynamic, well-dressed people to be the leaders and the techies with no personality to be managers. If you are thinking your own manager doesn’t quite fit this stereotype, you probably believe you are lucky to be working with someone who is both a manager and a leader. But leadership and management are not about looks and personality; they are about job descriptions.   

If you unequivocally favour leaders, you probably try to hire people who demonstrate leadership characteristics and who talk about the big picture in an interview. If you are doing this, you must have some pretty impressive people in your employ. However, quite possibly, the day-to-day tasks are not getting done efficiently, not getting done on time or there are many mistakes. That’s because leaders typically don’t have the patience for detail. They are thinking of what they will do two weeks from Tuesday (or even two years from Tuesday) rather than what needs to be done before lunch.

Leaders are the idea people, not the execution people. They are really good at sitting around the boardroom table, dreaming up new ways of doing things and are usually less enthusiastic about carrying out the plans. Managers, on the other hand, if they are doing their job, see to it that things get done. Perhaps their function is not glamorous, but it is necessary nonetheless.

Take a baseball analogy for example. Traditionally, the pitcher is the one in the spotlight; often he o r she is credited with winning the game. Now what about the right fielder? This is not a question of determining whether the two positions are equally important, but rather whether a team’s success would be possible if the field consisted of nine pitchers.

Consider the competencies your organization has identified as pivotal for success. Among them might be business development. Strictly speaking, if you hired only leaders, you might have a great marketing plan. You would know who your consumer audience is and how to appeal to it. You might have preliminary ideas about an ad campaign. Now, add top-notch managers to the mix and you will have the expertise to put the ideas to work. You will have someone to implement ideas, a contact person who will develop the budget, take into account the right timing and see that the project is completed by deadline.

In a perfect world, you would want everyone to be both a leader and a manager. But is that possible? To some extent, it is, but rare. More often, you would wind up with someone who is mediocre at both jobs. A more realistic option is to hire or promote someone who would function as a leader and someone who would function as a manager. There are not many people who can do both.

When considering someone for a position, ask yourself what you want to be able to count on this person to do. Identify the capabilities and experience you are looking for. Then ask the questions that will tell you more. You likely don’t expect one pair of shoes to be right for every occasion. Rather than buying one pair that won’t be suitable for both a formal and a casual occasion, you would invest in two pairs. For example, if interviewing someone to take on a leadership position, you might ask about his or her vision for your organization or for a particular challenge you are currently dealing with. If you wanted to ascertain whether the person has acted as a leader in the past, ask what a typical day was like in his or her previous jobs.

On the other hand, if trying to evaluate someone as a manager, ask the person about a project he or she was in charge of in the past: how he or she planned its execution, what the results were and what accounted for any problems.

Recognize that both sets of skills are crucial to the success of your organization and that you would be in trouble if both didn’t exist. Acknowledge and appreciate each job’s strengths and reward them equally. Resist the temptation to create a two-tier system where the leader is revered and the manager is the one people choose to emulate by default.

Are you a leader or a manager? Lean toward the role in which you can make the biggest contribution.