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Manager or leader?

Technologia
by Technologia
Technologia
Manager or leader?

Leader here, leadership there, aren't you tired of it?

By Cylril Vulgarides, President of Technologia

Article originally published in La Presse + on May 23, 2022

This idea is propagated too often in the media: being a manager is not enough, you have to be a leader! A leader with almost supernatural abilities, visionary, empathetic, who inspires his employees at all costs and in all circumstances to become better versions of themselves. Let's take a moment to think about this and try to deconstruct this myth that will never correspond to the reality of a manager.

First, I have rarely seen a position or title called "leader" in business. Rather: team leader, supervisor, director, vice-president... Are they all leaders hidden like Superman under his journalist uniform?

Let's first take some pressure off the manager's shoulders and use realism, and empathy, to understand the context in which they work. Regardless of his or her hierarchical level, a manager fulfills three main roles. He or she is:

  1. Team leader;
  2. Responsible for an operation, its deliverables and results;
  3. Responsible for the improvement of his operation and change management.

His or her day-to-day work consists of many activities: establishing a vision, an action plan, managing a budgetary framework, meeting tight deadlines, delivering results, making decisions that are often difficult, managing the team (performance, conflicts and collaboration, etc.), being accountable, and seeing to the continuous improvement of operations... all while being in meetings for a good part of the day! In other words, the list of tasks to be accomplished by the manager is long, and it is on all of these tasks that the manager will be evaluated. However, in the current discourse, there is a tendency to neglect, or even ignore, the operational or technical part of the manager's tasks, and to focus only on the team development aspect. But who on earth is going to manage the operational and day-to-day aspects?

Not all leaders demonstrate leadership

Historically, the notion of leadership has been associated with the chief executive of an organization, referring to people like Steve Jobs, Lee Iacocca, Bill Gates and others of similar caliber. These are all leaders who have left their mark through the success of their products and companies. We also associate the notion of leadership with great people, such as Gandhi, René Lévesque, Churchill, Jean Béliveau... In this context, the function of leader has nothing to do with the individual's skill set. Rather, it is associated with public figures who were the figurehead of a team or organization that achieved success or recognition. The leader clearly plays a role: he is recognized by all, he is followed, he has a certain ascendancy over others, etc. He is a leader in the eyes of others!

As for leadership, it defines the capacity of an individual to lead other individuals (or organizations) towards the achievement of an objective. We would then say that a person is a leader, that he or she is able to guide, influence and inspire. But this is not limited to the manager; every member of the team can demonstrate leadership at one time or another. Leadership belongs to everyone! Let's go back to Steve Jobs, for example. He is said to have been a leader, but there are many stories about his poor leadership performance. So let's not lump all these terms together.

Let's stop equating "manager" with "disappointment".

In fact, why don't we praise the manager? Why do we only praise the leader and leadership, even to the point of pitting them against the manager? As mentioned at the outset, the manager is, de facto, a team leader. So, is it because managers have historically neglected their teams that we are looking to leaders to save them? Is it because, in order to attract and retain talent, we feel obliged to add layers of benevolence, humanism, mindfulness, personal development, and I forget to mention the more operational work of the manager?

The professional world is constantly evolving and the quest for results and success does not stop. Corporate culture, management styles and collaboration practices must constantly adapt to the new reality of organizations, but also to the expectations of teams and individuals. Expectations of immediate supervisors are certainly legitimate, but they may also be too high, given the resources and time available to meet them. The manager has a job to do, a mission to accomplish and objectives to meet. They too are under pressure and must embody the company's vision as best they can... often dictated by their superiors. Over-valuing the "leader" necessarily generates unrealistic expectations (and serious disappointments!) among employees.

Are we throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Clearly, this new trend, based on benevolence and all those nice attitudes, although based on good intentions, is causing managers themselves to no longer recognize themselves. It is therefore time to refocus, but also to give a new impetus to our management development process.

The manager and the leader are one and the same! There are good managers and less good ones, as in every profession. Leadership skills can be developed, and every manager should invest energy in them. However, this leadership will only be meaningful in terms of the business objectives and the goal that the organization wishes to achieve.

Let's look for realistic solutions, which belong to the organizations as well as to the managers themselves, but also to the employees, to ensure that our companies become ecosystems in which success takes into account a balance between financial success, surpassing oneself, pleasure at work, and in which leadership is everyone's business. Each employee has a role to play and each one can add his or her stone to the building. The results of a team are the business of all its members.

To go further :

Leadership and talent management

 

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