Courageous leaders know managing is also about people

I had an interesting conversation today with a wonderful colleague and we talked about the differences between managing and leading - referring to the work of John Kotter - where he clearly states that we manage to implement (or as some now say - execute) and we lead to inspire. I have experienced many people attach managing to the task and leading to the people.

When developing Courageous Leaders I remind them to acknowledge that managing is equally about people and leading is equally about the task. It is just the level at which either of these are undertaken may change as they progress in an organisation.

Managing is not just about the task; it is also very much about people - and I know that many organisations suffer from mediocre performance because we are not managing the people - it is much easier and often more personally rewarding to manage the task. Instead managing the people requires tough conversations as referred to in an earlier BLOG. It requires people to have delegating conversations, giving feedback, receiving feedback, resolving conflict - each is a tough conversation which most of us run away from given half a chance!

While leading is also very much about leading the task and not just about leading the people. The nature of the tasks changes as you progress in the business and includes such tasks as creation of the business strategy, conversion of opportunities into real revenue for the business, completing research into particular issues of interest to you and to the business.

Courageous leaders juggle the tension between people and task in the way they manage and lead others. They do not avoid the tough conversations and they do not avoid the challenging tasks that require more leadership capability.