I read a post in which the author – Daniel Gross, tried to summarise his learning from the recently concluded COP26 Summit. What he shares is not only applicable for how he summarised the COP26 Summit, but to management in general as well.
Lately, I have been talking a lot about leadership and how important it is to lead. However, in that conversation, we should not forget the importance of management as well.
If we have to think of both leadership and management, I would say, that leadership is like driving a car in a high traffic area or when we are just starting our journey. You usually ignite the vehicle, slowly get off the parking slot, are not going that fast, still trying to navigate our way towards our destination.
Management is like driving a car on a freeway, with little to no traffic. You could point the car in a direction on a highway and might even put it on cruise control and allow the system to take care of the forward motion.
Another way to think about the difference between leadership and management is as follows –
Leadership is all about Enrolment and Management is about Execution.
-Mukesh Gupta
In order to execute really well as an organisation and to bring the full talent of the team, we need their full enrolment.
We can agree that effective and efficient management is an essential component for any team to be able to successfully execute on any project. So, it is important to understand what management is and how can we get better at management as well.
Here is one framework for us to understand management – 3 M’s (Momentum, Money and Measurement) of management.
Let’s look at each one of these in a bit more detail.
Momentum:
Leadership talks about the reason for the change and lays out the vision for the team to look upto. If done well, leadership already has done its job by creating momentum for the project to move on.
If we take the metaphor of the car, the momentum for the vehicle to move has already been created by the leadership (ignition done, forward momentum created by putting the vehicle in motion, early traffic situations navigated and the direction for the vehicle set and we have reached a highway.
Now, it is the responsibility of the management team to continue to build on this momentum and continue to move toward the goal, with minimal effort and maximum result. This is where the cruise control mode comes in handy. This is the reason why, there is an optimum speed for every car where the fuel efficiency is the highest and the drive is the smoothest.
In this phase, the biggest and the most important role of management is to ensure that there are no sudden bumps and no sudden breaks. Also, to ensure that the route that we are taking does take us to our destination and does not lead us astray and avoid accidents.
Money:
The second level or topic is all about the resources. We use money as a substitute for all kinds of resources. It could be actual dollars needed for the project team to be staffed, it could be human capital or intellectual capital or social capital, political capital or any other form of capital that the project needs if it has any chance of continuing on the path to reach its goal.
Let’s continue to extend the metaphor of the car. If we need to reach our destination, we need to ensure that the car is fuelled up and the we know where to find fuel when needed, the oil replaced on time, the filters replaced on a regular basis, the air pressure in the wheels are maintained as needed and breaks are working well.
If not, there is not much distance that could be covered. Similarly, any initiative or project, requires the requisite amount of resources that it needs to be allocated to it. All of this is the responsibility of the managers to operationally ensure of these resources being available as and when needed. This also means that they need to create internal stakeholder alignment needed to continue to move toward the goal (socio-political capital).
Measurement:
The last of the 3M’s that we are talking about is measurement. Measurement tells us whether we are going in the right direction , whether we need any specific resources, if we need to course correct and the speed at which we are moving.
If we continue to extend the metaphor of a car, measurement is all about your dials – speedometer, navigational maps, engine temperature check, air pressure gauge, break condition and maybe some music so that everyone could enjoy the music while going on the ride. Each instrument has its role clearly defined. Each one tells us the condition of the overall vehicle in relation to our journey.
These measurements also tells us when it is time to speed up and when it is time to slow down; when it is time to take a detour to refuel the car; when it is time to stop and take some rest, etc. The same thing with the different measurements or KPI’s or OKR’s that managers define, put in place and continuously monitor to ensure that they can respond to the changing conditions – both internal and external.
In conclusion:
In conclusion, I strongly believe that leadership and management are two completely different roles. Sometimes they can be played by the same person and sometimes we might have recruit different people for the different roles. In my experience, high performing teams usually have at the helm a pair working their magic.
There is usually an enigmatic or charismatic CEO and his partner in crime, unassuming and someone who can bring in maniacal focus on execution as his COO or something similar. They usually compliment each other’s skills and strengths. They know their roles and don’t interfere in each others turfs.
Usually they are good at both (leading and managing) but usually are stronger in one of them. Steve Jobs and Tim Cook come to mind as one such team. I am pretty sure that if we go looking we can find them everywhere, at every level of any decently successful organisation or even teams.
So, while leadership is super critical to set the direction, management is super critical to ensure that we reach the destination and achieve the goals that we set out to achieve.
Let’s remember the 3M’s that are a managers best friends – Momentum, Money and Measurement. Do you agree?
