While it is common practice to refer to the upper level folks in a company as the “Management Team”, I purposely avoid using the term when referring to the executives in our company. I refer to us as the “Leadership Team”.
Years ago, as a result of teaching a class on management, I was introduced to the book “What Leaders Really Do” by John P. Kotter. While the book is more than a decade old, it is still excellent and applicable today. I recommend to everyone in a leadership position in an organization that you read this book. One of Kotter’s persistent themes is that Management and Leadership are totally different. He writes,
"Management strives to make it easy for people to complete routine jobs day after day. Control is crucial and helps managers implement dependable processes that are as close as possible to fail-safe and risk-free. Leadership is different. Motivation and inspiration energize people, not by pushing them in the right direction as control mechanisms do, but by satisfying basic human needs for achievement, a sense of belonging, recognition, self-esteem and control. Leaders attempt to touch people at their deepest levels – by stirring in them a sense of belonging, idealism and self-esteem."
This is precisely why I refer to us as the Leadership Team, especially with our employees. I want them to understand that while we are setting a direction for the firm, and we expect them to execute tasks to fulfill that direction, our number one goal is to help them become better at what they do. They may indeed look to us to help guide what they are doing on a daily basis, but they really should be expecting that we will be consistently aligning them with our vision for the future to ensure that they are helping shape that vision. If it is working correctly, we should be developing a self-perpetuating system where leaders grow leaders, who grow leaders, who grow leaders, ad infinitum.
It would be great to hear from folks about the following question… What are you doing to create and grow leaders in your company?
