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GLpodcasts: Leaders vs Managers

February 12, 2012 in Frameworks, Podcasts with 0 Comments

In a recent blog posting we discussed the GrowingLeadership Framework: Leaders vs Managers and the work done by John Kotter in his book A Force for Change: How Leaders Differ from Managers.  This material is revisited in this podcast in a short, 4:17, summary of this important material.

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GLframeworks: Leaders vs Managers

February 5, 2012 in Frameworks, Leadership with 0 Comments

John Kotter is one of my favorite authors and his books are among Amazon’s top 1%.  He provides solid research that is very readable.  As one of the youngest faculty members to be tenured at Harvard Business School, Kotter wrote one of my top 3 favorite books, Leading Change.  Another of his popular books is A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs from Management. Here is how he compares leaders and managers:

Leaders

  • Establishing Direction
  • Aligning People
  • Motivating and Inspiring

Managers

  • Planning & budgeting
  • Organizing & staffing
  • Controlling & problem solving

It is not like one is right and one is wrong.  In a related HBR article, “What Leaders Really Do,” Kotter writes “management and leadership are two distinct and complementary systems of action….Both are necessary for success”  However, he does go on to say that most organizations are “over-managed and under-led.”

Think about how you manage these dozen activities.  Would you put yourself as Great (5), Good (4), Adequate (3), Poor (2), or DQ (1) for the following?

  1. Establishing Direction
  2. Aligning People
  3. Motivating and Inspiring
  4. ——————————-
  5. Planning and Budgeting
  6. Organizing and Staffing
  7. Controlling and Problem Solving

GLframeworks are designed to build your understanding of key leadership and management concepts.

GLframeworks: Three Levels of Leadership

January 24, 2012 in Frameworks, Leadership, Vision with 0 Comments

There are many ways we could frame out leadership.  Here is one approach that is not only straightforward, but also powerful.  Many leaders focus on the strategic level of leadership while neglecting both the visionary and tactical levels.  By putting all three levels together, you can lead at higher levels without losing sight of the tactical details.

  • Visionary: This level includes vision: What is the picture of your preferred future.  You could also ask, “Where do you want to go?”  Second, this level includes value(s) which focus on what do you value and what value do you bring to your organization.  Lastly, there is your voice.  This is the look, feel, and style of your leadership.
  • Strategic: This level focuses on what you want to accomplish.  It begins with a clear set of outcomes and supports those outcomes with detailed strategies and resources.  Remember that we use TEMP for resources: Time, Energy, Money, and People.
  • Tactical:  This is what happens on the ground.  It includes activities (What are you going to do), time (When are you going to do something), place (Where are you going to do something).  The tactical level of exercise could be “I am going to run at the park for 20 minutes.”  This includes the activity, time, and place.

GLframeworks

January 23, 2012 in Frameworks with 0 Comments

At GrowingLeadership, we are introducing a new series of frameworks.  A framework is a set of ideas that conceptually hold together.  Some will be more cognitive in nature.  For example, we will be talking about three levels of leadership: Visionary, Strategic, and Tactical.  Others will be more practical.  The framework of Getting Things Done (GTD) developed by David Allen includes a number of very practical topics from file folders to label makers to software execution.

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