Beautifully Boring

It's trendy to say, "be a leader, not a manager."

 

It's meant well and we all understand the touch people before paper intent, but it's short-sighted. 

 

Given we help schools, districts, and organizations to simplify and clarify in order to amplify their cultures and leadership, management is foundational stuff. No one seems to care about verbal hugs, planting team trees, and new team shirts if their timetable is weeks late, the building isn't clean, the copier is always broken, and the wrong texts were ordered. 

 

Complexity results from a lack of managerial skills, as people begin to create their own well-intentioned procedures. Complexity is the enemy of execution and the best friend of frustration. 

 

Yes, we've all known a great many exceptional managers that, for one reason or another, just aren't very effective leaders, but have you ever known a strong leader who wasn't also taking responsibility for managing too?  

 

Management is to leadership as planning is to teaching. It's foundational. Like a job done well by an official in a sporting event, no one notices the management. It's beautifully boring. We should all strive to make our leadership dynamic and our management predictable, clear, and almost automatic.