Leadership vs. Management

A question was asked in a Facebook comment section about what candidates thought the difference was between leadership and management, and I think it’s a wonderful question that needs to be addressed. Much of what follows is directly from my response in that comment section, but I’ve edited and expanded upon some of the themes after giving it more thought.

In my view, management is very much operational, tangible, and task-oriented. The day-to-day processes, skills, and routines of a business. I have spent a good chunk of my career doing this in the form of checklists for prep, ordering, inventory, temperature controls, etc. as well as developing job descriptions, KPIs, cash handling routines, recipes, and a host of other similar things. Answering emails, communicating with staff members and other managers. Client and supplier relationships and the like. Making sure the doors can open and people can be served. There are a mix of soft and hard skills at play in management, and good operators and owners understand the value of having some key staff members who are process-oriented and good at routines. I have a few people who I trust working at Hometown that are quite adept at these kinds of things: they come in and do the same tasks every day, thoroughly and consistently. They ask good questions, but are also comfortable taking an initiative, and learn new skills as a result. If and when we make changes and expansions to the business, I have no doubt that they will make very good managers. But they’re not quite what I would call leaders just yet.

There is obviously some overlap between leadership and management, but being great at one isn’t necessarily an indicator of success in the other. While management is often the measurable, known quantity, leadership exists outside the tangible and objective world. It's the personal and human qualities you bring to the team. Very much centred in soft skills that can be learned but are difficult to teach. Trust, integrity, accountability, vulnerability, confidence, rational thinking, and inclusion would all be high on my list of leadership qualities. It's not having all the answers; it's knowing how to get the right answer through collaboration and asking the right questions. Understanding how to measure success and that it has a different meaning depending on the context. Some of the best leaders I've worked with in my career have not been experts in the respective fields. But they've been good, intelligent, and curious people who think outside the box and team build effectively. One of my operations managers in a past role used to say, "yes is the answer, now how do we get there?" Sometimes we ended up at "no" after working out all the details, but I liked the approach that most things are possible and the "how" was often the issue. In the many discussions I’ve been having with residents, professionals, other candidates, and current City staff, “how” is the most common theme, and the thing we spend the most time on. 

I was gifted the book “Linchpin” by Seth Godin many years ago by a mentor who became a good friend. It is a very quick but insightful read, and I've made a habit of gifting a copy to people who have worked for me that I think are integral to my teams, but who don't always command a lot of attention or work in formal supervisory roles. I leave a short handwritten note - as my mentor did for me - explaining that I think they're one of the "good ones" or a similar inspirational message and encouraging them to take some of the advice in the book to heart. It's a small, inexpensive gesture, but I've heard from people years later that they found it meaningful. I just did it for a staff member who has worked for me for several years both at Co-op Place and Hometown and who moved away for university. I feel in some ways like I’ve watched him grow up, and I hope I’ve had at least a small part in inspiring him. I’ve seen the curiosity and creativity that often fosters good leadership qualities in him, and I’ve told him unequivocally he always has a job with me if he needs it. But I suspect he’ll be successful on his own and won’t need to take me up on the offer.

I like to think I possess lots of good leadership qualities, but I also know I'm never done growing and that education takes many forms. I have the vulnerability to know I'm not always right, and that I will continue to make mistakes. And that signals to my team that they can also be vulnerable and do the wrong thing with the right intent. Then we try to go forward learning from the mistake or misstep, and use what we've learned in future coaching conversations. I've been lucky to work with very diverse teams with a wealth of life experiences, and I literally never stop learning things. Sometimes a dishwasher or very young staff member has taught me more than a veteran chef or manager with decades of experience. That doesn’t just extend to food and drink. We have all kinds of conversations in the kitchen and during “family” (the meal we feed staff when we close between lunch & dinner service periods) that cover pop culture, politics, finances, psychology, travel, and almost anything people want to discuss. Plenty of times, I’ve found myself googling parts of a conversation or ending up in a Wikipedia or YouTube rabbit hole when I get home because of something a staff member brought up. 

Because of my natural curiosity, I can see the value in learning about things that might not seem interesting on the surface. I took an acquaintance up on an offer to tour the landfill recently (blog to follow!), which some people found weird or boring. But my guide spoke passionately and intelligently about his role, and really identified the importance of an essential but not traditionally interesting service that is inevitable, necessary, and unending. I walked away knowing a little about waste management, and a lot about the gaps in my knowledge of core city services. 

I’ve shifted my thinking a bit on how I’m approaching my candidacy, and you might have already noticed it. While it’s important to talk about priorities, initiatives, plans, and issues, I’m realizing it’s equally - if not more - important to talk about qualities and values. The aspects of leadership that I outlined in the beginning that are difficult to quantify. Those of us who find ourselves at the horseshoe can’t really know what the next four years will bring in terms of decisions - not specifically anyway. Navigating difficult, complex decisions with generational impact requires more than management. What we will need to bring to the table is a commitment to real, honest, and deliberate leadership.

Aspiring to inspire,

- Adam