The Difference Between Management And Leadership - aftermarketNews

The Difference Between Management And Leadership

Schwartz Advisors has a diverse team of leaders with extensive automotive aftermarket experience. This month, our partner Larry Samuelson discusses the difference between management and leadership based on his 40 years of working in the aftermarket.

By Larry Samuelson, partner, Schwartz Advisors and president of The Samuelson Company LLC

Schwartz Advisors has a diverse team of leaders with extensive automotive aftermarket experience. This month, our partner Larry Samuelson discusses the difference between management and leadership based on his 40 years of working in the aftermarket.

Leadership and management are both important attributes in a successful company, but it is important to know the difference and when to use one and not the other. Based on experience, the factor that sets them apart is that unlike management, leadership cannot be taught; it must be enhanced through coaching and mentoring.

Let’s first look at management. The main characteristics of management are to plan, organize, coordinate and control. A manager focuses on systems and structure, maintains a short-term view and accomplishes objectives. Almost everyone has a first management assignment. Yours may have been as a customer service manager, a sales manager, a purchasing or supply chain manager or an IT manager. Perhaps it was in a family business, where you were responsible for accomplishing a variety of objectives. When appointed or promoted to one of these or a similar position, your job was to manage an area of responsibility within your company and accomplish specific results. Although you may have taken management courses in college or elsewhere, you really began to learn and enhance your management skills while doing the job.

As a manager of a functional area, you will spend most of your time doing management tasks; however, there are opportunities, even as a junior manager, where leadership is required to accomplish your goals. The main attributes of leadership are influencing, inspiring and motivating. Leaders focus on followers and show a sincere concern for the needs and feelings of their employees. These employees will in turn determine the success of your business or functional area.

When to Lead or Manage?
The ability to recognize when leadership is required and what it consists of is one of the biggest challenges you may face. It is appropriate to lead when a department or organization is 1) trying to stay up-to-date in a rapidly changing environment; 2) is experiencing high turnover or employee dissatisfaction; 3) is losing customers or failing to attract new ones; 4) is continually making mistakes; 5) faces one or more obstacles to survival or success that it does not know how to address; or 6) lacks a sense of meaningful purpose.

On the other hand, an organization or department needs an emphasis on management when it 1) is inefficient; 2) struggles to make decisions; 3) has difficulty setting priorities; 4) does not follow through; 5)
produces inconsistent results; or 6) lacks a good business strategy. When the situation calls for leadership, how do you lead? Kenneth Blanchard, author of the “One-Minute Manager” series, may have said it best: “The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.”

Wayne Gretzky, arguably one of the best hockey players in history, said it a different way, “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be." Leaders move their business and employees to where the opportunities are; they don’t settle for the status quo.

Leadership requires influence, which comes from the relationships a leader builds that produce respect. Your organization, department or team will do things and follow you, not because they have to, but because they trust you and the direction you have set, and they want to do so. The difference that leadership can make comes from a story as old as the U.S. struggle for independence in 1776. The British were better equipped, better fed and better trained. The U.S. Continental Army was ill-fed and not trained. The U.S. Commander-in-chief, George Washington, was not a brilliant strategist and tactician, nor a gifted speaker, and had just average intelligence. At several critical moments, he was indecisive and made serious mistakes in judgment. However, experience had been his greatest teacher his entire life, and in this his greatest test, he never forgot what was at stake and never gave up. Without Washington’s leadership and unrelenting perseverance, the revolution would have almost certainly failed. His leadership really did make him the father of our country.

True leaders understand that the key component in an organization being successful is the ability to lead people. Simply put, you don’t manage people, you lead them. Procter & Gamble has been in business for more than 175 years. It has 26 brands with sales of more than $1 billion, and most of these brands are either No. 1 or No. 2 in market share. Red Deupree, the chief executive officer of Procter & Gamble some years ago, made the statement, “If you leave us our buildings and our brands, but take away our people, the company will fail.” Deupree’s statement is just as true for Procter & Gamble today as it was then, and is true for any really successful and consistently operating business in the world.

We also can learn from one of the great leaders in U.S. history, Gen. George S. Patton. Patton was hard-headed, and quite often profane, but in terms of leadership, his men would follow him anywhere. In the movie “Patton,” one of the opening scenes is Patton going into battle, leading the charge from the top of a tank waving his riding crop. Many probably thought this was a Hollywood affectation, but it was not. It is the way Patton actually led. One of his quotes describes his leadership approach: “Always do everything you ask of those you command.” Patton’s troops knew that George Patton would do anything and everything he asked them to do. Many times, he asked them to put their lives on the line and they were willing to do this because of the relationship and respect they had for him.

To summarize, what is important about being responsible for a department or for an organization is that people activate your brand and execute the plan that you and senior management have crafted. They do this because of the relationship they have with their senior management team. They trust the direction that has been articulated and are willing to do what is necessary to make this vision a reality. Know when to lead, when to manage and remember, when you lead your employees, it is they who will make your organization successful.

Larry Samuelson is a partner for Schwartz Advisors, a mergers & acquisition adviser and consulting firm to companies in the automotive aftermarket. He also is president of The Samuelson Co. LLC. For information, visit www.schwartzadvisors.com, email: [email protected], or call (858) 768-2623.

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