Bob Sutton on Leadership vs Management

Having previously posted on the distinction between leadership and management, the recent discussion by Bob Sutton on his view of the differences between leadership and management in his post “Leadership vs. Management: An Accurate But Dangerous Distinction?” caught my eye. In the post Bob makes an important point concerning how the distinction between management and leadership affects the conduct and behavior of leaders…

“… although I think this distinction is more or less correct, and is useful to a degree (one emphasizes the focusing on the bigger picture and the other on the details of implementation), I also think that it has unintended negative effects on how some leaders view and do their work. Some leaders see their job as just coming up with big and vague ideas, and treat engaging in conversation about the details of those ideas or the details of implementation as mere management work that is ‘beneath’ them, as things for ‘the little people to do.’  Moreover, this distinction also seems to be used a reason for leaders to avoid the hard work of learning about the technologies their companies use and the people that they lead and to make decisions without considering the roadblocks and constraints that affect the cost and time line, and even if it is possible to implement their grand decisions and big ideas…. But one characteristic of the successful dreamers I think of — Francis Ford Coppola, Steve Jobs, folks at Pixar like Ed Catmull and Brad Bird — is that they also have remarkably deep understanding of the industry they work in and the people they lead, and they often are willing to get very deep into the weeds. This ability to go back and forth between the little details and the big picture is also evident in the behavior of some of the leaders I admire most who aren’t usually thought of as dreamers… am all for grand visions and strategies.  But the people who seem to make them come true usually seem to have deep understanding of the little details required to make them work — or if they don’t, they have the wisdom to surround themselves with people who can offset their weaknesses and who have the courage to argue with them when there is no clear path between their dreams and reality… I am not much rejecting the distinction between leadership and management, but I am saying that the best leaders do something that might be most properly called a mix of leadership and management (a great example is HP CEO Mark Hurd) , or at least, lead in a way that constantly takes into account the importance of management.  And some of the worst senior executives use the distinction between leadership and management as an excuse to avoid learning the details they need to understand the big picture and to select the right strategies.” 

I agree with Bob concerning the effect that the distinction between leadership and management has on the behaviour of leaders where “Some leaders see their job as just coming up with big and vague ideas, and treat engaging in conversation about the details of those ideas or the details of implementation as mere management work that is ‘beneath’ them, as things for ‘the little people to do.’”. I have also observer this behaviour in many organisations. It is also true that great leaders have a good grasp on the details of the industry and the job at hand, they need to understand an practice the word of leaders and the work of managers.

It is also true that many of the organisations today tend to be over managed and under led. This requires that a focus on developing a leadership practice. It does not mean we stop or reduce our management discipline. We need both to be effective.

I agree that the distinction between management and leadership is useful, as it help us become more self-aware, giving us insight into when we are behaving as leaders and when we are behaving as managers.

If you assess your behaviour over the past few months, what percentage of your time was spent on management (the details) and what percentage of your time was spend on leadership (the big picture)? What have been the results? Was this an effective use of your time?