Beware! Too many management writers want you to join the leader versus manager debate and line up on their side.
Resist the temptation. You’ll do better as a boss if you understand the three kinds of work you’ve got to do and leave the debating to others.
Leadership, management, and supervision are all kinds of work. And if you’re a boss, you’ve got to do all three of them.
Leadership is a kind of work. When you do leadership work, you set the direction for your team. You give them an idea about how things will be different and how soon it can happen if we all pull together. Leadership is about direction, priorities, and thrust.
Management is a kind of work. When you do management work, you make sure that everything runs smoothly. You juggle competing demands. Management is about priorities and efficiency.
Supervision is a kind of work, too. When you supervise you help team members do a better job. You help them grow and develop. Supervision is about individuals and tasks and personal growth.
Debating which is more important is a waste of time and breath. That’s because you have to do all three.
If you do leadership well, your team members will have a purpose beyond their own individual performance. You help them be part of a winning team. But if you do leadership poorly, you set your team adrift with people working at cross-purposes with no goal except their own.
Do management well and the mundane details don’t get in the way of team performance. But if you do you management work poorly, team members keep getting surprised by little slip-ups that you should have handled. Then, everybody’s spending energy fighting fires instead of doing good work.
Supervision is the kind of work hardly anyone talks about anymore. Do it well, and your team members feel valued. They’re willing to give you their discretionary effort because they know that you care about them that you’ll help them meet their goals. Poor supervision leaves team members feeling used and unwilling to work to help the team.
So leave the debates to others. Instead concentrate on the three kinds of work every boss has to do: leadership, management, and supervision. Do them as well as you can.
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Excellent distinction of these as kinds of work Wally. Once we stop debating what we want to be (or which is better) we can get on with the business of determining which skill sets we need to develop further to make the biggest possible contribution where we work and live.