For a seminary class last quarter I read some article about leadership vs. management. I don’t recall where I read it or who wrote it or the real debate the article was about. But I do recall this two sentence truth that has been mulling around in my head for a while.
- If you don’t have a problem, you don’t need a leader.
- If you don’t have complexity, you don’t need a manager.
Stew on that for a while.
I have been. Here’s some stuff I’ve been marinating on about these two realities:
- Problems are essential to leadership. If you don’t have a problem to solve, then you are not having meeting, you’re having a social club.
- Leadership sees a problem as an opportunity for action the same way Managers see complexity as an opportunity for teamwork.
- Complex problems require a leader’s vision AND a manager’s insights to produce a real solution.
- Problems and Complexity both grow exponentially in the dark. Ignoring problems creates problems. Ignoring complexity increases complexity.
- My family has enough problems to constantly require leadership. Our family has enough complexity to constantly require management. Neither are negotiable skill sets we can avoid developing.
- I enjoy leading until the problems become trivial. I enjoy managing until the solutions become predictable.
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