Quit leading and start managing
Monday, June 2, 2008 at 09:13AM
Warning: I threw my back out yesterday and I hurt. What you will be reading may be written more by sore muscles than brain cells.
I am getting a little tired of the emphasis on "leadership" in society and especially in education. For all the talk, all the theories, all the studies, all the exhortations, this push is getting us nowhere - and good management may be suffering as a result.
Here are some deadly warning signs I've noticed lately...
- Has your local grad school replaced its "administration and management" classes with "leadership" classes?
- Has your professional organization's standards become a "visionary" document instead a practical description of and guidelines for an effective program?
- Has your last administrator been hired based on his philosophy and not his track record of running schools well?
I will state right up front that I am better manager than I am "leader." The workshops and articles of which I am most proud tend to be "management" rather than "leader" focused. Budgeting, tech planning, policy-making, skills integration, effective staff development and program evaluation are among my favorites. It's pretty easy to sneer at sharing "how-I-done-it-good" stories rather than research or high-blown commentary. But those looking down their noses probably aren't the folks trying to make actual changes in the classroom or library.
Let's face it - anybody can create a "vision" and cry loudly about all the things that are wrong and paint a utopian view that sounds pretty good (and it seems like almost everyone does). But what is usually lacking is any practical means of moving from Point A to Point B - especially within the parameters of working with real people, real budgets and a real number of hours in a day. I would contend that true genius is in finding ways to make vision reality - working where the rubber hits the road.
I've been wondering a good deal about what seems to be a round of recent political, economic and educational disasters - the Iraq War, the handling of Hurricane Katrina, the housing bubble, NCLB - and questioning whether it was a lack of leadership or piss-poor management that created (or exacerbated) the mess. Lets see:
- removing an evil dictator and establishing a democracy in the Middle East - good vision, poor execution
- helping the victims of a natural disaster - good vision, poor execution
- increasing the number of people who own their own homes - good vision, poor execution
- assuring that all children have good reading and math skills - good vision, poor execution
Where did we go wrong? Might it have been putting people who couldn't manage a one-car parade in charge? Leaders, not managers? Hmmmmm.
Pat a good manager on the back today...
Reader Comments (10)
I think that good leaders lead by example. And more often than not, that example means being organized, polite, efficient, smart - the qualities of a good manager. A great principal interview candidate once said in an interview, "leadership is not an event" and I never forgot it. That quote makes me think that there's a lot more to leadership than standing on top of a fire truck with a bullhorn. So I don't think leadership and management are mututally exclusive, Doug - I think they reinforce one another. They're two sides of the same coin.
While I don't disagree with Mike's comment that leadership and management go together like two sides of slice of bread, I do believe that I'm about "up to here" with all the baloney spouted by ed-leadership gurus.
On the one hand, administrators are hired to manage programs, to be facilitate the "do-ers" that they have to get the job done. While their opinions are often sought, the decision of what to do doesn't necessarily come from them. As a manager (according to my 360 degree measure) predominantly, I find myself in situations where I am often informed what the decision has been...and I wasn't invited to the formulation of policy or the discussions. That makes my role as a manager of information critical.
Critical because I have to ensure that the people making the decisions have the right information that will predispose them to the correct choice. On top of the information, I also give them my recommendation and suggested next steps. Sometimes, they listen. Sometimes they do not.
I've seen this happen, not only with me, but others over my head. While I understand that leadership gurus are focused on "empowering" you, helping you feel less helpless and giving you something to do to make change happen--and I believe we are powerful beyond measure--it gets tiring to hear their exhortations and short, engaging, pie in the sky stories.
Give me a hands-on, how-to manager who gets things done. . .let upper administration take the heat of poor leadership, a failure to listen, and other flaws usually ascribed to the middle manager.
;->
Miguel
P.S. I was trying to stay in the spirit of a rant post. Did I succeed? (hehe)
Hi Miguel,
Well ranted.
Your message made me think that one way of looking at the leadership/management task is that leaders point out problems/goals and managers figure out how to solve/achieve them.
Robert Moran in his book _Never Confuse a Memo with Reality_ says, “Never go to your boss with a problem without a solution. You are paid to think, not to whine.” Should we apply the "whine" principal to ed-leadership gurus as well? No more whining?
I also agree with Mike that leadership and management are not mutually exclusive. The best people display traits of both. Informing your decision-makers, Miguel, might be termed "leading from the middle."
Enjoying these insightful comments,
Doug
Please don't confuse 'leadership' with 'cheerleading.' The bottom line is that organizations never move beyond the status quo without some 'leaders' who have the 'vision' to see beyond the day-to-day management tasks of the organization.
Darn, Scott.
I was hoping to get more of a rise out of you with this post!
Doug
The tables of content of Peter Drucker's work have almost no mentions of leadership. He wrote almost exclusively about management (even when he was writing about something else), but not the "management" almost all of us have experienced. How many organizations on the planet have implemented his Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices? (http://tinyurl.com/2cof3n) Leadership Per Drucker: "The one thing you can say about leaders: they have followers ... snip, snip ... three of the greatest leaders of the last hundred years were Stalin, Mao, Hitler. ... snip, snip ... I want no part of it." About Drucker: http://tinyurl.com/63kwng
I'd say you have to have both visionaries and managers.... Because a shortsighted (or just plain bad) vision well executed doesn't get us anywhere either. Current case in point would be a classroom full of very skilled multiple choice test takers who score well, but are not taught to be knowledge creators. I'd agree that the balance has probably shifted too far in one direction, but there is still some value in the visionaries.
its a great to know about Quit leading and start managing thanks
I've been enjoying my own little rant on the same topic down here below the equator. The "leaders" in my own organization would do well to read your insights Doug.
A good leader in my mind is the one who can not only develop and articulate the vision, but also the one who develops the strategic plan that moves the program closer to that vision. The two activities aren't mutually exclusive.