Photo by Tom Fisk.
Good leaders manage and good managers lead
We never like it when we disagree with Peter Drucker (modulo the rampant unexamined sexism). Drucker famously said, “Managing is doing things right, and leadership is doing the right things.” And a cottage industry of bumper sticker management vs leadership advice has been humming along ever since.
Our fervent hope for you on this unseasonably warm Wednesday morning is that you throw it in the trash because it’s getting in your way.
It’s very freeing to let it go.
It means that when people say, “The leader inspires trust whereas the manager relies on control” you can say, “No, that’s what shitheads do.” When they say, “leaders have people follow them while managers have people who work for them” you can say, “No, that’s what soon-to-be-former-managers have.” When they say, “Managers rely on positional authority, whereas leaders exercise interpersonal influence,” you can say, “…what?”
Look. Management and leadership are semantically distinct, for sure. We use leader-y language more when we’re talking about strategy, values, and purpose. We use manager-y language more when we’re talking about process, support, and operational excellence. It’s okay for words to mean different things.
But the overlap between them is much more important than the peripheral edges where they are different. To run an organization well, you need all of it. The thing where you tell yourself you don’t need to learn to be a better manager because You Are a Leader Not A Manager? Cut that shit out. I know you’reswell, but that’s what assholes say to give themselves permission to keep being assholes. Don’t do what assholes do.
We suspect Drucker would agree.
— Melissa & Johnathan
What Melissa’s Reading
The New Atlanta Billionaires Behind An Unlikely Tech Unicorn
I ran into a VC friend this week. It had been awhile and she asked what I’d been up to since the last time we caught up. I launched into an over-caffeinated tirade about the uniquely awesome experience of building a linear business after helping build several venture backed ones. I talked about the deep connection you feel to strategy when growth and revenue are so deeply coupled. That link didn’t always feel as sharp to me in a venture backed setting.
I’ve long known that both DHH and Jason Fried over at 37 Signals are big fans of bootstrapped businesses. But it wasn’t until we were running one that I understood all the great things that come with linear growth. Lately, I can’t stop reading about them.
I spent my entire early career advancing the narrative of genius visionary founders and hypergrowth businesses. When you hear about the Valley hype cycle, that was basically my mid-twenties. Now in my not-so-early thirties, I’m all about the slow growth and the atypical path.
This week, Forbes put out a really good read on the Mailchimp story and the power of linear growth. They close the piece with a run down of tech leaders outside of the Valley and I’m here for all of it.
What Johnathan’s Reading
Will Larson on Career Narratives
This post is good, and it’s a piece of the puzzle around career planning, which is a puzzle that many folks we meet struggle with. People early in their career feel like they’re supposed to have a plan but don’t know what it should look like, or expect their manager to do that work for them. Managers get told they have to help their people grow, get asked by their people for more Career Conversations, but don’t know how to do that for themselves, let alone others.
Will (@lethain on twitter) does a good job in this piece of talking through how to employ your manager in the process without making it her problem to solve for you. If you want to get more hands-on about it, and especially if Will’s piece gets you excited to read more, I’d go buy Reid Hoffman’s The Startup Of You.
[BTW – I think “The Startup of You” is a really lamentable title for a book. Really really bad. And I say this as co-author on one of Amazon’s only best sellers with the work Fuck on the cover. So I get that you are reluctant to make this purchase. But Reid is a clever fellow on some things, and the book is concrete and direct on how to be intentional about your career direction. Just tear off the front cover or something.]
I saw an orientation presentation once at IBM that I wish I’d saved (in whatever mutant Lotus Notes format) that spelled out The Secret Truth. It was long, but it boiled down to: past a certain point that you reach pretty early in your career, your manager stops being a useful gatekeeper to career advancement. Yes, they can champion and sponsor you. Yes, they can be a powerful ally. But once you know how to Do The Thing, any future progress is going to be stuff you initiate. Wisdom can come in funny packages. Even lotus notes.
