Management in Perfect Synergy with Leadership

“Mom, I have a message for you.” My 23-year old son stops to ensure he has my undivided attention. “You need to prioritize the passing on of your leadership wisdom and insight to the next generation. This is important.” I was stunned by the vision and direction.

One of the reasons why I’ve written my new book is to challenge experienced business leaders—accomplished at getting financial results and growing business valuation—to be increasingly aware of their stewardship responsibility of mentoring and training up the Next Gen of character-based business and sales leaders.

We know that leadership works hand-in-hand with management. Mentoring Next Gen Leaders includes both. To illustrate my point, here’s an extract from my e-book Leadership Shift: Paradoxical Wisdom for Today’s Leaders:

Knowing where to go requires knowing where you are

Marcus Buckingham, author of The One Thing You Need to Know about Great Managing, Great Leading and Sustained Individual Effort, tells us that a manager coaches the success of the individual in the here-and-now while the leader visualizes and pied-pipers an entire organization toward the future. But the secret of successful CEOs, business leaders, owners, and Sales Leaders is that they are able to do both. Plus, they know when to switch hats between the two disciplines.

A common situation from ranching illustrates the importance of balancing both leadership and management. The ultimate rancher needs to be both leader – planning  ahead for future needs (the corporate vision for expansion, exploring new markets, embracing new technology and team development) – and a manager –  focusing on the herd (the team). Place too great an emphasis on vision and you lose the individual. Favor management too heavily and you might end up with a starving herd.

As a leader on your ranch, you need foresight to judge the feeding capacity of a pasture and the current and future needs of your cattle.  For that reason, regular cattle drives take place, moving the herd from pasture to pasture.  The rancher knows to plan ahead, otherwise the cattle will overgraze a pasture to the point where all that’s left are weeds and dust.

But ranchers – and business leaders – need to be good managers too. You’ve got to tame that grass-is-greener-in-the-other-pasture leadership vision with the tactical management skills that tell you how to get the best from the pasture you’re harvesting right now.

Seasoned leaders, continue the process of handing over the reins to the Next Gen Leaders in your business with confidence, knowing that you have been the best rancher you can be.
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Leadership Lesson:  Business leaders need to synergize nearsighted management and farsighted leadership vision.

Photo Courtesy: Sam Fredin
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​​© Copyright Danita Bye, 2017