Stop Misusing the Term “Leader”
Let’s Talk About the Term Leader
Hold on one sec, *grabs soapbox*. That’s better. Ok, we need to define some terms real quick. We’ve noticed a trend where organizations like to throw around the word “leader”... a lot. The Air Force started doing this while we were on Active Duty with the slogan “every Airman a leader.” This isn’t great, in fact, it was, and remains, a terrible idea. First, not everyone is, or should be, a leader within an organization. Second, most of the time, when organizations use the word “leader” it’s in place of the word “manager.” The two words are not synonymous. Please stop it.
Understanding the Importance of Managers
See, managers are in charge of people with a focus on optimizing processes and resources. We like managers, we need great managers, a business’s success or failure has a lot to do with its management. Leaders, by contrast, inspire, motivate, and empower people to work together toward a common goal (and also get most of the credit). What this definition leaves out is that leaders also have high levels of decision making autonomy. This is key. The vast majority of leadership theory and technique is written for business owners and those at executive levels. Why? Because they have the most autonomy. These individuals are focused on the big picture, the overall mission and goals of the organization, and are not dealing with the same day-to-day minutiae as managers and supervisors. So, when organizations call managers “leaders”, these managers can wind up trying to use leadership techniques that are simply not meant to address their specific needs and circumstances, leaving them feeling frustrated and ineffective.
Giving Your People the Right Training
Of course, none of this is black and white, some managers implement some leadership techniques to great effect, but others don’t, and that’s kind of the point. There is a lot of individual nuance involved, which gets watered down or completely lost in most leadership advice. In fact, most leadership material, in an effort to appeal to the broadest possible audience, actually plays into the idea that everyone should be a leader. Worse, they then try to sell their leadership style or technique as the “best”, and rarely discuss who their style is best suited for, because again, they are trying to reach as many people as they can. For leaders, this lack of guidance often ends up with them buying shelves full of leadership books, using the (highly effective) “trial and error” method to figure out what works for them. For managers and supervisors, they struggle to find any advice at all that is actually geared toward their roles.
When you fail to recognize the distinct and highly skilled role that managers and supervisors play within your organization, you run the very real risk of leaving them underprepared, and overlooked. Don’t do them this disservice, they aren’t leaders, they are managers. That’s exactly what you need them to be.
