Education

Know what you are BEST at

November 5, 2009 | By: deaneparkes

Leadership and management are often thought to be the same. If someone is a manager they are assumed to be a leader. From my experience I have not found this to be true. Though both are vital to the success of any business leadership and management are two different roles and often a good manager is not a good leader and vise versus.

This may be hard to swallow for some but even people who own a business may not qualify as a manager or leader. Many successful owners hire great managers and leaders to run their business. Sure they may carry the core vision but managing and inspiring people to want to grow the business may not be their strength.

I read once that you manage things and you lead people. This I feel embraces the difference between the two.

Managing is about doing ‘things’ well – setting procedures & policies, writing up job descriptions, creating marketing plans, cleaning, scheduling, ordering, merchandising, payroll, etc. It is about setting up good systems, being organized and getting things done to build a productive business.

Leadership is about having the ‘right people’ in the right job while focusing on -trust, emotion, purpose, inspiration, praise, gratitude, vision, hope, understanding etc. Leadership is more about finding what people are best at, bringing out their best, and helping them develop so they contribute their best to the business.

A successful business requires a diverse group of people with strengths in many different areas; customer service, buying, selling, computers, merchandising, administrative, finance, etc. I know for smaller businesses at first you do everything even though some of the jobs are not your favorite or best strength. My suggestion is whenever you hire someone new hire someone to do what you are not good at or do not enjoy.

If you want to take a test to discover your strengths or your staff – www.strengthsfinder.com

Many companies now have people take a strength/personal assessment test before hiring as interviews often are not the best way to determine if the person is qualified for the position.