How to Think like a Leader Rather Than a Manager
Episode 356 | Author: Emilie Aries If you’ve been working hard, pride yourself on your detailed-oriented, consistently excellent performance, but you’re still left feeling stuck and passed over for the promotions or leadership opportunities you want, today’s blog is for you.
Because as frustrating as it may be, to get to the next level in our careers, we often have to go above and beyond excelling in our current role. To show we’re ready for growth, we have to show that we’re already thinking ahead and acting like a leader.
One common misconception I see is that people mistake management skills for leadership skills. They are fundamentally different, but those differences are not well-understood.
Don’t get me wrong: one is not inherently better than the other - they’re both important! All of us need to call upon our manager mindset and leader mindset to get our work done and to keep constantly learning and growing, so both skill sets often coexist within the same person. More often than not, you tend to lean one way or the other, and for about 90% of the women I work with, they lean towards thinking like a manager.
While there’s nothing wrong with being an excellent manager - and frankly, most of our jobs require the ability to manage projects and get things done efficiently. But in order to show your leadership potential to those around you and to get opportunities to rise in the workplace, we have to start showcasing our leadership mindset even before it’s being asked of us.
There are many ways that thinking like a manager looks different than thinking like a leader, but today I’d like to focus on how that difference shows up across three dimensions in particular:
Tasks v. People
Managers tend to be task-focused. They get to work and think, “What do I need to do today?” They thrive on the dopamine hit they get when they can cross something off their TO DO list and “clear the decks.” They’re focused primarily on getting things done and meeting client’s needs.
Leaders on the other hand, are more people focused. They wake up and think, “Who do I need to set up for success today?” or, “Who do I need to check in with today?” They focus on equipping people and teams with the resources they need and removing barriers in their path. They focus on inspiring people to deliver their best performance and on anticipating client needs, not just meeting them.
So if you’re flexing your leadership mindset alongside your manager mindset, how might that impact how you approach an everyday project, like writing a memo. A manager might think, “Ok, how do I start by outlining what I want to say in this memo, then draft it, and then send it to my boss for approval.” They’re focused on the step-by-step tasks involved.
A leader might say, “Ok, how do I start by briefly talking over the scope of this memo with all the stakeholders? This will impact to understand what they need covered in this memo in order for it to equip them to move forward effectively, then draft it.”
It’s not about being a manager or a leader - it’s about challenging yourself to think about how your approach to your everyday work and everyday tasks might shift if you practice using both mindsets.
Executing v. Innovating
Managers keep the trains running on time. They’re focused on managing projects and programs with precision, driving towards deadlines, and fulfilling promises made. They think about what meetings are on the horizon they need to prepare for, what tasks will need to get done in order to execute the work, and what they can do, personally, to influence the outcome for the better.
While managers keep the trains running on time, leaders think about innovating the mode of transport altogether. Can’t we make a faster train? Or would things work better if we took an airplane? Or perhaps we should change our destination altogether? Leaders question assumptions and think about what should be on everyone’s TO DO list, rather than adhering to what’s on their list at any given moment. They ask big picture questions and question how things are being done (sometimes, much to the chagrin of managers around them) as they drive towards an ultimate vision.
A client I worked with in our Level Up Leadership accelerator was asked to produce a slide deck for her boss’s boss, covering how she would expand a project that she’d executed well in Canada to the entire continent of Europe. She was being considered for a promotion at the time, and this presentation was an opportunity to show her boss and her boss’s boss that she was already thinking like a leader and ready for more.
She walked me through her presentation, which looked back on what worked well in her Canada project and then outlined how she’d replicate that in Europe. I challenged her to think bigger. I want her to see what other organizations in her industry were doing in Europe that she could learn from. I wanted her to do more market research into macro-trends that might be impacting her target audience in Europe right now. I wanted her to draw her own conclusions from that analysis and weigh in with what she thinks she should be doing when expanding this project into Europe.
“But that’s not what they asked me to do,” she said to me on a coaching call. “I know,” I replied. “This is a time to go above and beyond what’s being asked of you.” I challenged her to bring her leadership mindset in and not stop at merely executing what she was asked to do, but rather, to focus on how she’d innovate and improve the project if given the opportunity.
I’m happy to report that her presentation was a smash, her boss and her boss’s boss were absolutely blown away, and this Level Up client landed a promotion and a hefty pay bump, too.
Doing Things Right v. Doing the Right Thing
Finally, managers tend to focus on doing things right, while leaders focus on doing the right thing.
Approaching work with a manager mindset means you’re focused on adhering to the rules, getting the details right, and making sure you’re being thorough and precise. Project managers need to make sure we’re sticking to deadlines. Product managers need to make sure the development team is getting the bugs out of the new feature before it’s ready to go live. Program managers need to make sure the clients are getting their survey results in on time.
Approaching work like a leader might mean you struggle with the details and you aren’t as focused on getting things done perfectly. Instead, you’re focused on how you leave people feeling about working with you and whether or not the rules you’re following align with your overall values. Did the project go exactly as planned? Who cares?! Who even knows?! Rather than being bogged down with those details, you’re focused on finessing those relationships so you parlay them into more opportunities.
As an example, when I returned from a client’s leadership training we had the pleasure of running a few months ago, I was certainly thinking about the TO DO items that needed to be tackled - the invoice that needed to be prepared, the photos that needed to be uploaded, the survey results that needed to be culled through - but what I was more focused on was this: how is that speaker we featured at the event holding up? She had a traumatizing incident involving bed bugs at the hotel we’d put her up in, and I am worried about her mental health, not to mention the grief the hotel has been giving her as they've been essentially gaslighting her this whole time. Calling her to check in, lend an ear, and make a plan for how we could help was my number-one priority that day. Why? Because I’m focused on doing the right thing - even if it means that getting everything else done right has to wait.
A Manager & a Leader Mindset Both Serve a Purpose
While a leadership mindset can sometimes make you seem aloof and out of touch with your head in the clouds, chasing whatever idea has captured your attention for the day, this approach can serve an important purpose in keeping everyone on your team thinking into the future and tapping into their highest collective purpose.
Operating from a manager mindset can sometimes keep you almost too bogged down in process and tasks, but helps to keep our organizations ground, operational, and with an attention to detail that ensures quality control.
So What’s the Take-away for Women Leaders on the Rise?
Making the shift from thinking like a manager to thinking like a leader isn’t easy, and doesn’t happen without intentional effort. But if you want to prove that you’re ready to lead more, you have to start acting like it first.
This is especially true for women, who are less likely to be seen as having leadership “potential,” even when their past performance is rated highly.
“People, both men and women, take bets on who’s going to be able to lead,” says researcher Herminia Ibarra. “And leading, it turns out, has very much to do with articulating a different version of the future.”
The question becomes: are you mostly spending time approaching your work like a manager, focusing on getting things done and done well? Or like a leader - focusing on the future, on people, and on purpose?
Regardless of what’s being asked of you in your current role, what would it feel like to pause, and think about what should be on your TO DO list, as opposed to just effectively cruising through it? What would it feel like to re-evaluate what “doing the right thing” looks like on behalf of your clients, constituents, or the broader community you serve?
I want you to take this challenge to heart. Flex your leadership muscles and challenge yourself to do more critical thinking, analysis, and big picture thinking, than what's being asked of you in your current role.
I'd be curious to see, not only what your experience internally is like, how it feels different to approach work this way, but also how those around you react and respond to you weighing in with more of your leadership mindset. Making a small shift like this can have a profound impact.
I just came back from a closing celebration dinner with a Level Up Leadership Accelerator cohort that we ran with a bunch of high-achieving and brilliant doctors, as a part of the Stanford Advancement for Women in Medicine.
We worked primarily with junior faculty at Stanford Medicine, and it had been over 9 months since I had taught anything about the difference between a leader versus a manager. At our closing dinner, each participant shared what was most impactful for them, and I was flabbergasted to hear so many members say that for them, it was understanding the difference between being a leader and a manager. They shared that even though they have work to do as a manager, they recognize that they have to show up more and more as a leader.
This slight shift has had a profound impact on how these women show up in their roles and contribute to conversations at work. They're weighing in with a different mindset and that is getting noticed by their bosses who also celebrated with us at this closing dinner. It was so incredible to hear their bosses who are chiefs of medical divisions, department chairs, and very high-level medical professionals weigh in and say, “I have noticed a tonal shift,” or, “I have noticed this person showing up at a higher level.”
It's really incredible that after 9 months of even mentioning the differences between the manager and leader mindsets, it still was a huge key takeaway that so many women have from our Level Up program.
If you want to learn more, check out Level Up here. We host public cohorts that we run a few times a year, and organization-specific cohorts.You can learn more about how we can help you and your team to create a custom Level Up, leadership accelerator, for the women here.
Got a career conundrum or #bossmove you want to share on the podcast? Leave me a voicemail at 910-668-BOSS(2677) or shoot us an email at info@bossedup.org.
