27 May Leadership Saturation – and Management sacrifice

How do you know when you have too much leadership and not enough management? Is that even possible?

Our focus at WorldsView Academy is on Strategy, Design, Leadership and Teams – and we develop frontline and middle management skills in all these areas. In June, we shift our focus from organisational design to management development. If you have been following us over the last twenty years, you will have noticed our love for Leadership Development. That has not gone away, but we are troubled by a neglect of management development. 

In this article we touch on a few signals that suggest a shortage of good managing and an excess of bad leading. Before we get started, we might deal with those who feel that management is so “old school.” Well – its not! There is a difference between management and leadership, and until we find new ways to allocate resources, resolve conflicts, gather information, disseminate information, liaise between organisational units, monitor what is going on, negotiate with multiple stakeholders, and reorganise for internal and external changes – we need managers! Good leaders have a critical place in organisations and in society at large – but without management they might come across as dreamers and speechmakers.

This article only looks at signals – future articles in the build up to our Café Conversation might expand on these themes. So, what signals suggesting a management drought (in a leadership flood) might you look for?

When the organisation has forgotten the role of managers

The first signal is the way management is spoken about. In many organisations, the word “manager” is said with a slight sneer. “He’s just a manager.” The favoured term is “leadership.” As if leadership was a role instead of a process, a title instead of a behaviour, and as if management was a curse. This is a red flag, as great managers build great organisations.

When conflict is not resolved

Conflict is a blessing and a curse. The conflict of ideas, sparking diverse ways of seeing problems and solutions, is a blessing – and is to be encouraged. The conflict of personality and power, when the organisational objectives are being overridden by personal agendas, is a curse. Both kinds bubble up every day, and if the body of the organisation is getting caught up in conflict, then you may be missing the unifying power of good management.

When resources are not allocated for work

No organisation has unlimited resources. Finding a way to meet organisational objectives efficiently is a daily challenge – to get the job done, any job, in a way that maximises quality, meets volume requirements, and minimises cost. Resource-allocation decisions need to be taken at every level of the organisation. When resources are not getting to work, management is missing.

When roles and responsibilities are not clear

No job description perfectly captures the work that a person needs to do – especially when the work requires a group of people to cooperate. Leaving this up to self-direction works in exceptional cases (self-directed teams), but for day-to-day issues it really helps to have a responsible person cut through the noise and clarify roles on task. If people keep tussling about responsibility, if work is slipping through the cracks, if HR is getting daily calls to rework job descriptions, then you may have a management gap.

When the executive speeches say one thing, but the work says another.

You notice when executive bluster replaces executive responsibility – fine speeches about a better life or promises that problems will be solved, or markets will be found – completely disconnected from the execution capability within the organisation. In these cases, when effort needs to be put into developing processes, hiring the right people, improving systems, and getting work done – the work belongs to the manager. If all the speeches promise an exciting vision and all the deliverables are poor, there may be a flood of bad leadership and a drought of good management.

Other signals

These examples demonstrate a few failures of organisational design, suggesting that leadership is being valued more than management.

From your own experience – what signals are there that we might be drowning in “leaders” and missing “good managers”? Please drop a few of your stories and examples in the comments – and follow us on LinkedIn to stay a part of this conversation.

Of course, great leaders don’t only develop other leaders (to quote Ralph Nader) – they also develop great managers!

Our next conversation Café will be on the 25th of June from 09:00 – 10:30, and Liezel van Arkel will facilitate the conversation on “Leadership saturation”. Register here to join the conversation – and remember it’s a conversation that you want to be a part of – the recording does not capture the full benefit of participation in one of our conversation café’s.