Dear Subscribers:

February – the shortest month and one with several special “Days” – Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, Presidents’ Day, this year Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday, and once every four years, an Extra Day. The TV and newspaper ads seem to trumpet some sort of “Sale” every holiday – do you begin to wonder if holidays are just an excuse to have a sale? In this short month with its hint of spring to come, make the most of your February days – they do go by quickly, don’t they?

Because so many spam filters seem to intercept HTML newsletters these days, we have gone back to a text version of Viewpoints. We will be moving to a system of putting Viewpoints on the web and when that happens, we will notify you by email when the latest issue is posted. You will then be able to access the latest issue – and other items – on our web site.

Thanks again for subscribing to Viewpoints. We hope you find this newsletter interesting and useful. Each month, we feature an overview of a different topic, some food for thought, and a smile or two.

Warmest Regards,

Charlie Boyer
Infinite Perspectives, LLC
www.infiniteperspectives.com

HOW TO EAT AN ELEPHANT: last month’s topic brought some good feedback and several suggestions that got the wheels turning and my fingers clicking on the computer keyboard. I revised it, expanded the article to ten points, and plan to submit it soon to the Coachville Top Ten program.

There are many “Top Ten” articles available for business or personal categories that you can receive every weekday via email. If you’d like to subscribe, here’s a link to the web site.: http://www.topten.org/subscribe.html

MANAGER or LEADER: Which Are You?
From the numerous books and articles that have been published about the need for real leaders in today’s world, one could easily get the impression that society is overrun with managers and administrators who lack the qualities of good leaders.

We’ve all had experience with both good and not-so-good management and leadership in our lives. Have you ever worked with a “bottom-line, status-quo” type of manager who sees everything in two dimensions? It’s on/off, black/white, up/down and don’t confuse me with more than two choices, thank you. Or perhaps a leader whose idea of “me-first” leadership is the General Bullmoose model? Or another leader who is too busy managing the managers to lead effectively?

No names please, but do you recognize people you’ve worked with? Experiences with such people prompted me to do some research on the characteristics of good managers and leaders. Here are a few examples, condensed from the writings of some well-known authors on management and leadership.

Jim Collins, author and management researcher, describes a Manager as one who “…organizes people and resources toward the effective and efficient pursuit of pre-determined objectives.” He describes an effective Leader as one who “…catalyzes commitment to and vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision, stimulating higher performance standards.” Notice the choice of words Collins uses -- “organizes people and resources,” “efficient pursuit” compared to “catalyzes commitment,” “vigorous pursuit,” “vision.”

Warren Bennis, an authority on leadership, believes that a new generation of leaders, not managers, is needed for the 21st century. He states that today, many businesses, organizations and institutions are over-managed and under-led. Here are some of the distinctions Bennis made:

Manager: maintains
Leader: develops

Manager: short-range view
Leader: long-range perspective

Manager: asks how and when
Leader: asks what and why

Manager: has eyes on the bottom line
Leader: has eyes on the horizon

Manager: accepts the status quo
Leader: challenges the status quo

John Kotter, an expert on business leadership, contrasts Management and Leadership in this way:

Management: Planning and budgeting, establishing detailed steps, allocating resources
Leadership: Establishing direction, developing and achieving a vision

Management: Organizing and staffing, carrying out the plan, monitor implementation
Leadership: Aligning people, communicating direction, influence creation of teams

Management: Controlling and problem solving, monitoring results, solve problems
Leadership: Motivating and inspiring, energizing people to overcome barriers

Management: Produces a degree of predictability and order
Leadership: Produces change, often to a dramatic degree

Lance Secretan, author, award-winning columnist, corporate mentor, and speaker, wrote about leadership as a process of inspiring others. He says that we often go through the motions of learning leadership from others, but we fail to include our values. He believes that nothing happens without the presence of inspiring leadership, and offers the following definition of leadership as the foundation for his book, Inspire!: “Leadership is a serving relationship with others that inspires their growth and makes the world a better place.”

SO . . . MANAGER or LEADER: Which Are You?
Do you see yourself more of a manager or more of a leader? Maybe there are other perspectives to consider. With all due respect to the above authors, the view of manager - leader as an “either – or” question seems to limit the truth that good leaders must sometimes manage, and good managers must sometimes lead. Perhaps we should think of the management – leadership question as a “both – and” situation. The “management – vs. – leadership” paradigm seems to me to be a limiting and potentially adversarial vision for any company, organization, or institution.
Why not think of management – leadership as a continuum that will tend to empower managers and leaders rather than limit them? Maybe we’ve been asking the wrong question all along. Rather than ask “Which are you?” we should ask “Where are you?” on the manager – leader scale. Think about it.

Resources that were helpful in preparing this issue of Viewpoints:
Bennis, Warren, Managing People is Like Herding Cats. Provo, UT: Executive Excellence Publishing, 1997. ISBN 0-9634917-5-X
Collins, Jim, Good to Great. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001. ISBN 0-06-662099-6
Kotter, John P., Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996. ISBN 0-87584-747-1
Secretan, Lance, Inspire! What Great Leaders Do. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2004. ISBN 0-471-64882-5

SOME QUOTES ABOUT LEADERSHIP:

A leader faces the music, even when he doesn’t like the tune. (Anon.)

The difference between a boss and a leader: a boss says, ‘Go!’ – a leader says, ‘Let’s go!’ (E.M. Kelly)

Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you must be without one, be without the strategy. (Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf)

The very essence of leadership is that you have a vision. (Theodore Hesburgh)

JUST FOR FUN . . . From a friend via the Internet, some new words for the workplace vocabulary:

BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible

CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles

PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people’s heads pop up over the walls to see what’s going on

IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. Two prime examples: the OJ trials, and the latest Michael Jackson circus.

ADMINISPHERE: The rarified organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.

OHNOSECOND: That miniscule fraction of time in which you realize that you’ve just hit the “delete” key and didn’t save that file to your computer.

MOUSE POTATO: The on-line generation’s answer to the couch potato.

SCHOLARSHIP TO BE AWARDED. Know of a high school student who would like to win a $2,000 scholarship for their college expenses? Coachville is sponsoring a NEW – FIRST TIME EVER – National Essay Contest on the topic, Redefining Leadership. The winner of the contest will receive a $2,000 scholarship, airfare and lodging for two to New Orleans, and will be invited to present the winning essay during the Coachville Annual Conference, May 4-6, 2005, in New Orleans. If you know of someone who would be interested in entering the contest, please ask them to visit this web site: www.coachvilleannualconference.com and look for the “Essay Contest” button in the upper right part of the web page. Contest guidelines and an entry form can be downloaded from the web page. Deadline for entries is March 1, 2005. Questions? Please contact the essay contest team leader at contest@coachville.com

NEXT ISSUE: Conflicting Intentions. Does this ever happen to you? Yesterday, you intended to accomplish a task, but things kept getting in your way. Today, that task is still waiting to be completed. Honestly, how important were those things that kept you from doing what you intended? As Alice sang in Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, “I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it.”

Infinite Perspectives, LLC provides coach-based consulting to business and educational leaders who want to create programs of excellence, to individuals facing major changes in their lives (Retirement, Relocation, Restart), and to those who are hitting walls of resistance and want to find windows of opportunity. Visit us at www.infiniteperspectives.com to discover how coach-based consulting can help you make a difference.

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