3 questions from Hanna Hasl-Kelchner of Business Confidential Now
In the early fall of 2020, I was asked to join Hanna Hasl-Kelchner on her podcast, Business Confidential Now. We had a great conversation if you’d like to listen to the entire episode.
There were three questions in particular that Hanna asked of me that resonated closely with what we talk about in our program. Here they are:
Let's talk about the differences between managers and leaders -- if there is one. I know people use it interchangeably. But how would you describe the difference?
There are differences. If I were to take this in a literal sense, management is really about coping with complex things. Operational excellence. Effectiveness. Efficiency. Control.
And large organizations need to do this, as they have a lot of employees, a lot of teams, and a lot of people. As they grow bigger, management needs to ensure that things are moving along the right track. So even a term like ‘project management’ is really about making sure projects get done effectively, in alignment with guidelines, on time, and that everybody's rowing in the same direction.
Now leadership, on the other hand, is distinctively about coping with change. Things like setting direction, aligning teams people to ensure they're moving in that direction, then, of course, the idea of motivating and inspiring people at their core, turning into their emotions and things to get them driving and motivated to succeed. Leadership is about adapting to change in a fast-moving world. And so we have to cope with futures, uncertainty, and leadership and incredibly helpful and effective for those reasons.
What about the employee who is promoted within a company, and is now supervising friends. What advice do you have for them?
If you are moving from a position of the same status to one of a higher status and you end up managing a friend, I think what's really important is to understand upfront what they can expect with you. It really comes down to setting expectations. And I think that goes across the board for any other people that you are starting to lead, even if you move from the same type of level to a hierarchical level.
One of the things that you also have to establish with friends is what your MO is together. Are you friends first? What's your mantra? You can have conversations about how you want to interact with that person and set boundaries for what applies to your friendship versus what applies to your work.
And so if you're picking up on my theme here, it's really about communication about expectations to ensure you're aligned.
What are the challenges faced by new managers?
The first thing that you have to remember is that it's not about you. It's about helping other people be effective and succeed in their roles so that the team and the company will ultimately win.
I think one of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs in particular face is letting go. They have to realize it's not about them, it's about making sure their team and everybody's winning together. And even though it might be their baby, this idea of letting go is supercritical. So that's certainly one thing that a lot of first-time leaders struggle with.