SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.
Last week, we asked: Are you better at being a leader or being a manager?
- I’m better at being a leader: 44.68%
- I’m better at being a manager: 21.26%
- I lead and manage equally well: 27.74%
- I don’t see a difference between leadership and management: 6.31%
Leading or Managing. As Admiral Grace Murray Hopper said “You manage things and you lead people.” The clear majority of respondents have a bias toward the people side of things. If you are in this group, just ensure there’s someone on your team who has an eye on the management pieces too. It’s very easy to ignore the inanimate and focus on the human interactions. Lean too far in that direction though and you put your organization at risk. If you lean too far in either direction, there are risks involved. Be sure you understand and mitigate them as much as possible.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”