Management that Leads By Olan Hendrix   "People will do a good job if they are provided with management that leads." - Warren Bennis   For as long as I have been a student of management there has been an ongoing debate over the differences between leadership and management. While it is true that there are differences, the differentiation provides very little practical help to the beleaguered leader/manager looking for help. The most benefit may well come from integration rather than separation of the two words.   Louis A. Allen was one of the most respected management researchers of the middle years of the last century. He saw management as consisting of planning, leading, organizing and controlling. Perhaps he saw the futility of focusing on the differences and the benefits of blending the two.   When we define management as the work one does to get work done through others it is difficult not to include leading in our thinking. How can we expect to cause people to accomplish tasks apart from influence? Leading is influence. Words, Words, Words Words have only the meaning we give to them. They are merely symbols that mean different things to different people. If management means paper work to someone, he or she is not apt to see management as an integration of tasks that includes leading. Language keeps creating new words. Perhaps we need the word, leaderment, or would managership be better? For now we are stuck with the two words to describe the tasks that we must perform in order to get work done through others.   Leaders must learn to manage, and managers must learn to lead. When we see the two as interdependent we are more apt to improve at the work of getting work done through other people. When we see the two as totally separate we more easily excuse our deficiencies in one or the other and thereby deny ourselves the potential for learning.   We frequently hear of ministries that are committed to what is called leadership development. This usually refers to helping people learn how to witness, teach or lead a home bible study. While this kind of training is sorely needed, it is equally necessary that pastors and para-church heads learn the skills of getting work done through other people. Often this is the most pressing need facing an otherwise successful ministry.   There are many lines of thinking that leaders use to excuse themselves from learning these skills. Of course the "I am a leader and not a manager" is the most prevalent. Another is the appeal to spiritual gifts. No one would deny that it is important to know one’s gifts. However, "that is not my spiritual gift" can simply be an escape mechanism if we are not careful. If I am a pastor or a para-church head it is my responsibility to learn the skills required by that position. If I am instinctively a leader then I must learn something of management. If I am easily a manager I must learn the skills of leading.   Doug Richardson, in an article on the internet writes, "To understand leadership, it is important to grasp the difference between leadership and management. Leadership is the ability to inspire confidence and support among the people who are needed to achieve organizational goals. Management is the process of setting and achieving the goals of the organization through the functions of management: planning, organizing, directing (or leading), and controlling. Thus, leading is a major part of a manager's job. Yet a manager must also plan, organize, and control. Generally speaking, leadership deals with the interpersonal aspects of a manager's job, whereas planning, organizing, and controlling deal with the administrative aspects. Leadership deals with change, inspiration, motivation, and influence. Management deals more with carrying out goals and maintaining equilibrium." Leadership Theory According to John P. Kotter, a prominent leadership theorist, today's managers must know how to lead as well as manage. Without leading as well as managing, organizations face the threat of extinction. Kotter draws the following distinction between management and leadership:   Management is more formal and scientific than leadership. It relies on universal skills such as planning, budgeting, and controlling. Management is an explicit set of tools and techniques, based on reasoning and testing, than can be used in a variety of situations.   Leadership, in contrast to management, involves having a vision of what the organization can become.   Leadership requires eliciting cooperation and teamwork from a large network of people and keeping the key people in that network motivated, using every manner of persuasion.   (John P. Kotter, A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs From Management, New York: The Free Press, 1990.)   Another key distinction has been drawn between leadership and management. The key function of the leader is to create a vision (mission or agenda) for the organization. The leader specifies the far-reaching goal as well as the strategy for goal attainment. In contrast to the leader, the key function of the manager is to implement the vision. The manager and his or her team thus choose the means to achieve the end that the leader formulates.   If these views are taken to their extreme, the leader is an inspirational figure and the manager is a stodgy bureaucrat mired in the status quo. But we must be careful not to downplay the importance of management. Effective leaders have to be good managers themselves, or be supported by effective managers.   Stephen Covey said in his best seller, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, "Change--real change--comes from the inside out. It doesn’t come from hacking at the leaves of attitude and behavior with quick fix personality ethic techniques. It comes from striking at the root--the fabric of our thought, the fundamental, essential paradigms, which give definition to our character and create the lens through which we see the world."   (Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, New York, A Fireside Book, 1989.)   There are ways to improve our deficiencies in the arena of management/leadership. The first step is to change the way we think of the subject. If I relegate the matter to the mystical I am not likely to put forth the effort to learn. If the subject intimidates me I am not likely to pursue it.   It helps if I reduce the subject to bite size pieces. I can’t learn everything, nor can I do everything at once. Perhaps I can’t even read an entire book on the subject just now, but I can at least read a chapter or a page. I must begin, and then I must persist in the learning process.   If you have made the effort to read this far in this short article you can become proficient in learning management.   (For further reading see: Mind of a Manager, Soul of a Leader, by Craig R. Hickman, New York, John Wiley, 1992)