By Bradford Thomas
On the way into work the other day I was listening to ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike in the Morning Show. The two Mikes were discussing whether it is Tony Romo’s fault that the Dallas Cowboys have not taken it to the next level. This led to an engaging discussion on whether NFL teams could really succeed without their quarterback being the leader. John Elway. Dan Marino. Brett Favre. Leaders.
What about Bradshaw? Was he the leader with all of the vocal members of the Steel Curtain?
This got me to thinking about office chit-chat. How many times have you heard someone say, “Mary is the quarterback of my sales team” or “Bill really quarterbacks those monthly accounting meetings”?
Most people would replace the word quarterback in both of these sentences with leader or manager without missing a beat. That’s because most of these comments refer to front-line leaders—those managers or supervisors who go into the huddle with their teams each day and run the X’s and O’s of the business.
The words manager and leader may be first-cousins, but they’re not perfect synonyms. Army recruits, marketing associates or defensive linemen may display leadership qualities—think of Ray Lewis pumping up the fans and his teammates before a goal-line stand—but not possess the decision-making skills of the sergeant, marketing manager, or quarterback. On the flip side, an IT manager may be great at planning and organizing, a key managerial competency, but poor at inspiring others, a key leader competency.
The fact is that most organizations want their current and emerging managers to have leadership potential—an ability to develop good leadership skills in the near future—but they desperately need them to be able to manage on day one. A rookie quarterback, like Mark Sanchez with the Jets, is expected to manage his team’s offense, but he earns the right over time to be the leader.
Let me turn it over to you: Do you feel there is a difference between managing and leading? Which one takes precedence when your organization is assessing readiness to step into a supervisor role?
Bradford Thomas is a Manager at Development Dimensions International.
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