WHY WE NEED LEADERS AND MANAGERS ALL THE TIME

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.