“Don’t limit your business for the sake of control. Whether building our infrastructure or thinking about growth, I focused on allowing us to be as successful as we could be, not trying to control everything.” – Dan Overton, founder, The Cheesecake Factory

So I find myself back in a leadership role at an organization after years of being on my own as a consultant. Oddly enough I sometimes hear my own voice in my head, especially about the difference between being a leader and a manager. I’m constantly asking myself whether the task at hand is one that requires a manager, or a leader.

Since I’ve written about it several times in this blog, I’m starkly reminded that all managers are not leaders, while all leaders are, at times, managers. I know my own rule of thumb, that you manage “things” and lead people. Now it’s time to put it into practice again.

Leaders define goals, create vision, give parameters, and set their people loose. Managers tend to tell people the end result, and then give precise directions on how to get there, usually leaning heavily on doing it “my way.” With a manager, even if you achieve the goals it isn’t success unless you did it their way.

This inherently makes leadership more difficult than being a manager. Management is about control and “yes/no” decisions, while leadership is more about “what if…” Leaders love a team who can brainstorm with ideas coming from all corners. They understand every idea isn’t a perfect one, and that every idea can’t be used. But they also understand you have to give license to your most creative people to find a better way, to break the “best practices” and improve on them, to explore new territory on the chance there’s something better there.

Which brings me back to my job. It’s very easy to slip into the role of manager – and stay there. It’s more precise and less messy to manage than it is to lead. But I also know that management doesn’t cause growth, leadership does. There’s something about being in an office that leads to meeting after meeting, email communication and tight schedules. Right out of the book The Activity Trap, where being busy is confused with achieving goals. That’s the natural momentum in many organizations, and only if you’re aware of it can you fight it.