Too often people confuse managing with leading. They are distinctly different roles separated by a significant difference: Managers tell and inspect, while leaders inspire results through others. Micromanagers, of course, are a subspecies of the former. They hover and tell people not only what to do, but how to do it, when to do it, and relentlessly inspect progress. Some are nice, many are not, but in a task-oriented world, activity meddling is at least understandable. Some jobs simply demand it, whether for quality control or quantitative output reasons.
But modern leadership is far different. Inspiring others requires an understanding that motivating knowledge workers to do fine work requires three things, none of which strips away the thinking power of a committed employee. Those three are:
- Delegating with clear vision, communication, and defined expectations.
- Empowering people to create the desired output.
- Holding them accountable for the timely delivery of quality results.
But there is a second type of leadership, situational leadership, that has nothing to do with positional power and everything to do with circumstances that unexpectedly arise. When immersed in the execution of a delegated responsibility, there are times the workers will be tested. These situations offer personal exercises in decision-making, and come with three different success keys:
- Identify all vested stakeholders. Who is directly and indirectly impacted by the situation? What’s at stake for each? Once you know who, stack-rank their skin in the game. Know who has what at stake. If you don’t know, find out.
- Study your options. Frequently this involves a choice between doing something or doing nothing. Evaluate all remedies from multiple pro-and-con angles, and sell yourself on the merits of each.
- Do the right thing. I am fond of saying, “The right thing and the easy thing are not always the same thing.” I say this for a reason: These days the work world seems crowded with corner-cutters willing to trade expediency for quality. Do what’s right, however inconvenient it may be compared to less complex alternatives. Have the fortitude and make the effort to not just deal with the situation, but to make your choice of action as good or better than what your options seem to allow.
People who achieve things in life (and careers) know that there are times to lead, times to follow, and times to get out of the way. Positional power does not mean someone suddenly has “Wizard of Oz power.” Yes, they may have a title, a corner office, a bigger paycheck, and nicer car. But none of us is all-seeing and all-knowing. Those who believe they do have self-limiting blind spots and will never get the best they can out of the people they lead.
Years ago I bred a racehorse with my brother and a friend. She had a big pedigree and our dreams were even bigger. She got left at the gate in her first start at fabled Churchill Downs. She spotted the field way too much to make up but was reeling them in during the run to the wire and finished fifth. Young horses must learn, as must their owners. She had speed but needed to learn to break out of the gate with the others, not after.
Buoyed by owners’ optimism, we looked forward to her second start.
It never came. She fractured a leg in training. When the phone rang, we were faced with a decision: Put the horse down and collect the insurance money, or pay the vet to try and save her. He said it was our choice.
The filly was insured for $100,000. Assuming she she was saved, she might bring $10,000 at auction as a broodmare prospect. Plus we’d have all the bills along the way.
The situation called for a decision. We weighed the pros and cons, and settled on the right thing — which for us meant saving the horse. A year later she sold somewhere around that $10,000 at auction.
Sure, it would have been nice to have the insurance money. But sometimes in life and business, you have to understand the fact, study your options, and do the right thing.
We never regretted it.