Chapter 1:
Leadership and Management
A genuine leader is not a searcher of consensus but a molder of consensus. –Martin Luther King, Jr.
Before we delve into intentional leadership, we should grasp the distinction between leadership and management. While these terms can be used interchangeably, they carry distinct meanings essential for a comprehensive understanding of organizational dynamics. This knowledge will empower you to navigate the complexities confidently.
When we think of management and leadership, we also need to consider our business’s organizational culture and structure. A successful business owner plays a dual role: strong leader and manager. This duality is crucial for getting the team to follow the vision of success. Leadership is about getting people to understand and believe in your vision and work with you to achieve your goals. On the other hand, management is more about administration and ensuring the day-to-day operations are running smoothly.
A business’s success is intricately tied to its employees. The constant need for new hires can disrupt momentum and financial stability. This underscores the critical role of organizational culture and structure and how they intersect with leadership and management in ensuring a business’s success.
Organizational culture has three core components: beliefs, norms, and values (He, 2023). Communication, whether formal or informal, is vital to a business’s organizational culture because it has a direct influence on structure and operations. A good organizational culture affords those working within the company a sense of belonging and community, allowing for innovation and creativity.
On the other hand, organizational structure is more focused on hierarchy, especially within roles and responsibilities. It focuses more on task delegation and the chain of command. When our organizational structure is working properly, it improves communication, collaboration, and efficiency within the business and its employees.
Leadership, management, organizational structure, and culture are four core pillars that can make or break any business. Think of them as building blocks of any business’s success. They work together to create an environment that promotes creativity, diversity, inclusivity, empowerment, and growth.
Now that we understand the power of these four core pillars, we can look into the difference between leadership and management.
Defining Management and Leadership
Knowing the difference between management and leadership helps us understand why intentional leadership is essential and how managing people differs from leading people.
Leadership focuses on planning, strategy, and vision and encourages people in the organization to move toward positive changes. Leadership directly affects how an organization operates, its culture, and how it is managed. It is about how much influence one person has on others.
A leader cares about the organization’s goals and helping people reach them. Their main goal is to influence people while letting management and workers use their skills, experience, and knowledge as best they can.
Conversely, management deals with assigning tasks and ensuring they are finished by their deadlines. When we follow a leader, it is because of many things, such as their beliefs, values, behavior, personality, and more.
Remember that people follow leaders by choice. Leaders can be anywhere inside the business; they don’t always have a fancy title, and their influence is not always easy to see. These leaders are known as “informal leaders,” and they can significantly influence your culture and business.
Be the kind of leader you would want to follow
Thinking back on my career, a few people stand out that helped me understand what an effective leader looks like. In times of doubt, I would often think of some of my mentors and contemplate what they may have done in that situation. You know what works. Be the leader your team looks back at in the future and wonders what you would have done.
Different Ways to Treat Subordinates
Communication in management and leadership often varies because each role views subordinates differently. A leader focuses on collaboration, and a manager focuses on a rank system with titles and authority.
Subordinates under management are workers who follow instructions and complete tasks as directed by managers, according to the guidelines given. Management operates under a clear authority structure, with managers at the top and subordinates below them. The communication in this dynamic often creates an environment where employees have less opportunity to participate in decision-making or planning. Feedback channels may exist, but managers frequently overlook ideas to change the existing system. They often focus on improving what already exists by ensuring workers know what tasks they need to complete rather than on real innovation. Management is about communicating instructions, making it a one-sided discussion.
On the other hand, in a leadership system, the dynamic is more open. Different styles of leadership give various amounts of power to subordinates. Because subordinates are seen as equal collaborators, leaders solicit their feedback and ideas. The goal is to find team members who are excited to take the initiative and learn while achieving the goals set for them. In this communication style, the leader listens and considers their team’s thoughts. While all ideas may not be used, and subordinates may not have total autonomy, leadership allows for open communication between all parties.
Management means telling the worker, “You must do this,” but leadership is about showing the worker, “This is what we should do.” Another essential part of their interaction is how these approaches motivate workers. Both styles can be related to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (McLeod, 2024).
The motivational theory discusses that human needs are like layers in a pyramid, each stage making a new layer for motivation. On a basic level, the pyramid has three layers: basic needs, psychological needs, and self-fulfillment needs (McLeod, 2024). The lower parts of the pyramid are significant and relate to how managers view motivation. The idea is that workers want job security to meet their most basic needs, so they stay motivated because they fear losing their jobs. Management keeps employees involved by making them afraid of punishment, while the security of having a job is enough reason for them to keep working. The workers are seen as uninterested in any work rewards but mainly come just to get their salary.
On the other hand, leaders think people use jobs to satisfy higher needs in the pyramid. When they give workers the opportunity for self-actualization, leaders can motivate and inspire them. Thus, by challenging team members to improve their skills and knowledge and giving them chances for personal development, leaders can support them in meeting higher-level needs and keep them driven toward shared goals. Moreover, as mentioned before, finding the right people for specific roles is crucial.
Since management believes structure is very important for success, the steps are already in place, and management needs to find people who fit these specific roles without adding new positions. The ability to perform a task well is central to the hiring decisions of managers. Conversely, leadership focuses more on personality traits and character to determine whether someone fits well with the values of the team or company rather than just looking at their particular skill set. When deciding if a person is a good match for the team, a leader looks at whether the person has the motivation and is ready to follow a vision. This is where the phrase “hire for character, train for skill” comes from (Lakra, 2017).
Step one is knowing the difference between leadership and management and how each fits into organizational culture and structure. Step two involves figuring out what kind of leader you are right now. In this next section, we will examine the different leadership styles.
Types of Leadership Styles
Before diving into intentional leadership, we first need to understand the type of leader we are. Whether we recognize it or not, we already lead others. Our leadership style refers to our current methods and systems for influencing, encouraging, managing, and directing those who allow us to lead them and the strategies we implement to help us achieve our (or an organization’s) goals and objectives.
Traditional Leadership Styles vs. Servant Leadership
There are many leadership types or styles, but most are subcategories of two broad categories: traditional and servant. We will discuss several of these subcategories and the fact that every leadership style has advantages and disadvantages.
Traditional Leadership Style
Traditional leadership styles are usually employed when there has been an exchange of power, meaning the leadership role has been passed from one person to the next. They operate from a hierarchical perspective, meaning that a chain of command is followed. So, instead of coming up with a new way of leading, those in such positions tend to continue in the previous way of doing things. Here are a few characteristics of someone who follows a traditional leadership style:
Traditional leaders are often more committed to the growth of the business than the people within the company. Their main concerns are passing the business down to others and not upsetting the status quo.
Traditional leaders often prefer to work alone. They rarely share their power with others and sometimes seek assistance from those above them in rank.
Traditional leaders often inherit their roles. This means that their environment operates on a next-in-line system (which doesn’t always translate to choosing the best person for the role).
Always Keep in mind that there are different types of traditional leadership styles. These are subcategories of leadership, and they include:
Democratic Leadership Style
In democratic leadership, team members have the opportunity to voice their opinions about a particular matter, project, or anything concerning the team. This style offers inclusivity and collaboration and fosters employee engagement.
Autocratic Leadership Style
Autocratic leadership, also known as authoritarian or commanding leadership, centers on the leader being the only person with the power to make decisions. It is a top-down approach, and there is minimal empowerment or autonomy. This is an excellent style in times of urgency or emergency.
Transformational Leadership Style
Transformational leadership aims to push people outside their comfort zones while allowing them to see and use their potential. The point is to cultivate change through inspiration while constantly raising the standard. A good transformational leader usually has empathy, excellent communication skills, a high level of emotional intelligence, a shared vision for the future of the business or person, and unquestioned integrity. If you have ever heard the phrase “true leaders develop other leaders,” transformational leadership is the best style to accomplish this.
Transactional Leadership Style
Also known as managerial leadership, the management style of transactional leadership utilizes rewards and punishments to motivate followers and provide direction. This form of leadership prioritizes structure, the organization’s significance, and supervision as crucial factors in ensuring performance—ultimately resulting in favorable outcomes. Transactional Leadership utilizes immediate performance results to evaluate employees. Leaders who exhibit this style strongly believe in organizational structure and authority.
Laissez-Faire Leadership Style
This type of leadership, sometimes called delegative or hands-off leadership, requires the leader to provide the employee with all the necessary skills, tools, and resources to do their job. Once they have done this, they will allow the employee to do their job without interruption. With this type of leadership, employees are free to delegate responsibility, make decisions, tackle problems, and act more independently. This hands-off style is sometimes regarded as “lazy.” A laissez-faire approach can create challenges with larger teams or newer team members who need additional guidance.
Bureaucratic Leadership Style
In bureaucratic leadership, the leader is more focused on implementing the rules, regulations, and policies that the company has come up with concerning the project or team. Employees are allowed to voice their opinions and ideas; however, those all need to align with the rules, regulations, and policies that the company has set in place. If not, those ideas and opinions will, in most cases, be thrown out because they are contrary to what the company has already set in place. In cases where ideas can be taken further, there is a lot of red tape that employees need to go through. Bureaucratic leadership could be considered a more traditional leadership style with limited autonomy and a transparent chain of command.
Servant Leadership Style
In contrast to traditional leadership styles, servant leadership is a philosophy that prioritizes serving the greater good. When we think of leadership from an “ideal” perspective, we probably envision the servant leadership style. In this, the leader focuses more on serving those they lead while incorporating ethics, humility, and honor. They aim to inspire, elevate, and develop those around them to help them achieve their goals and objectives.
NOTE: Most leaders incorporate varying degrees of different styles depending on the situation. A leader often has a predominant style, but circumstances may call for others. Good leaders can quickly move from one to another or infuse elements of a different style if it benefits the situation.
Self-Introspection
For many of us, our leadership style has been adopted by those who came before us, which is the epitome of “tribal learning,” meaning we’re doing something we’ve seen being practiced by others. Although we may not understand why our leaders lead the way they do, it does not lessen its impact on our current leadership style.
Reading this book means you’re looking for improvement or a change in your leadership style. You’re looking to make and leave an impact through the way you lead. Before we jump into intentional leadership, we’ll now ask ourselves a few vital questions:
What is my current leadership style?
Where have I seen my current leadership style being used?
Why do I lead the way I do?
What is my main objective with my current leadership style?
What is the end goal of how I would like to lead?
Is my leadership effective, and does it help those around me?
What would I like to change about my leadership style?
What are my ideas, beliefs, and values about leadership?
By answering these questions, you can determine your current leadership skills and the areas you would like to change about how you lead. Keep the answers to these questions to help you keep up with your progress.
Now that we have a fundamental understanding of leadership, we will define intentional leadership in the next section.
Defining Intentional Leadership
Understanding what it means to be an intentional leader starts with understanding what it means to be intentional. Being intentional is the act of being purposeful or deliberate about something, whether it be time, finances, or, in this case, leadership. Some may describe being intentional as the process of aligning all your goals and objectives to match what you do with your time, lifestyle, and more. So, what does it mean to be an intentional leader?
Intentional leaders are mindful and purposeful about the objective of their leadership and how they lead. There are various characteristics surrounding an intentional leader, which include:
being deliberate and purposeful about actions.
ensuring that your vision, mission, and purpose align with your actions.
planning of processes to ensure that the desired outcome is reached.
intervening on matters without making others feel like they are being micromanaged or controlled.
Intentional leadership is about pushing people to reach their full potential, whether at work or in their private lives. By practicing intentional leadership, we can:
understand when we are supposed to ask or tell,
recognize when we need to provide support or push them further,
and achieve our business objectives while still developing the people within the team.
Intentional leadership tackles three main points: task, relationship, and learning. These areas require the leader to set specific goals and objectives with a desired outcome. The more effective you are in your role as the leader, the more likely your business, clients, and employees will thrive.
The Benefits of Leading With Intention
Leading your team or business with intention has various benefits. This section looks at just a few benefits of implementing intentional leadership.
Unleashed Potential
Untapped potential lies within every team member. Intentional leadership allows team members to unleash their potential by fostering an environment that will enable them to thrive. When employees feel seen, heard, and taken seriously, they are more likely to allow themselves the opportunity to grow personally and professionally.
Alignment of Goals
One of the many issues employers, leaders, and managers face is employees’ inability to align with the business’s goals. When this happens, several issues arise, such as a slower pace of work, unproductive and unhappy employees, lost revenue, and more. Intentional leadership can lead to employees aligning with the business’s goals because they fully understand their function within the company.
Higher Morale
The more unpleasant a working environment is, the easier it is for employees to leave. We all know the challenges of finding good people, let alone the costs of filling a vacant position. By leading with intention, we create a culture and environment where people want to stay and contribute, allowing them to reach their full potential.
Now that we have a fundamental understanding of intentional leadership and its benefits, we can focus on the difference between intent and impact.
Differentiating Between Intent and Impact
When leading a group of people, you must understand the difference between intent and impact because your actions as a leader directly affect those you lead. When leading, things may be lost in translation; therefore, the result does not align with your intent. This is because the vision (or “intent”) we have of how our actions affect others (the “impact”) may differ from reality.
Intent vs. Impact
So what is intent and impact, and how do they affect intentional leadership?
Intent
Intent is the willingness or need to do something and putting all your resources toward the outcome. If you think about archery, you aim at the bullseye but don’t always hit it. Intent is the same way. You aim at a result but may not always reach it. Remember that the outcome may vary; however, the main objective was that you had a willingness or need and put all your resources toward getting it done.
Impact
On the other hand, impact can be described as the emotional, psychological, financial, or physical effect your actions may have on someone else. Although you may have specific intentions, your actions or plans may affect others in a way that was not expected. It is about their perception. How were your actions perceived? That is the impact.
The Difference
When studying the difference between intent and impact, we must consider cause and effect. When we take action, we intend a particular outcome; however, those around us may not perceive what we’re doing as we expected, producing a different result.
When leading, one of the many things we need to take stock of is the intent and impact of our actions as leaders. Learning to bridge the gap between the two by role modeling the behavior you expect, withholding judgment, ensuring everyone is accountable, and communicating openly can help. Always ensure that everyone within the team understands their role, what they are meant to do, and when.
Recognizing the Need For Change
Change: It can be an intimidating word, and most adults fear change. But change is not only good; it is necessary. By reading this book, you already recognize that change is needed—we are continuously evolving. I am a fan of simple, and the simplest way I can explain the leadership journey is to always be taking a step forward. No matter how big the step is, always move toward improvement. I often tell my clients that we don’t have to be perfect, just better than yesterday.
Implementing new leadership and management strategies can help you in almost every aspect of your business. Your employees are the heart of your business, and your leadership is the blood that keeps that heart pumping. Through these changes, we can ensure our staff has the chance to prosper and stay motivated toward our organization’s success.
Intentional Reflection
Before jumping into the next chapter, there are a few questions that you need to ask yourself to help you reflect on the information you’ve read while allowing you to look into your leadership reality.
What does intentional leadership look like for my specific working environment?
Up until this point, what is the difference between my intentions and the impact they leave on my employees?
Do I think I have been leading with intention?
Have I accurately identified the need for change within my business?
Have I created an environment that allows for others to thrive?
In Chapter 2, we will examine self-reflection and awareness by discussing the foundations of intentional leadership and examining your leadership skills and style more deeply. We will discuss self-awareness, your values and principles, and more.
Summary
Intentional leadership involves deliberately planning and envisioning your leadership approach, which can significantly transform your organization's culture and structure while positively influencing your business and employees. To be an effective leader, it's crucial to adopt a mindset acknowledging your control over your leadership journey and the importance of investing in your own development by adjusting your current perspective or accepting the status quo. Furthermore, it's vital to comprehend your intentions and their potential consequences, as there may be a substantial, often unintended, disparity between your intended outcomes and their actual impact.
Key Takeaways
Leadership and management, while often used interchangeably, have distinct roles in an organization. Leadership focuses on vision and inspiring people, while management deals with day-to-day operations and task completion.
Organizational culture and structure are crucial pillars that work alongside leadership and management to create an environment promoting creativity, diversity, inclusivity, and growth.
Intentional leadership involves being mindful and purposeful about leadership objectives and methods. It aims to push people to reach their full potential professionally and personally.
Understanding the difference between intent and impact is critical for leaders. Your intentions may not always align with how your actions are perceived by others, creating a potential gap that needs to be bridged.
Recognizing the need for change and continuously evolving as a leader is essential. The goal is not perfection but consistent improvement - being better than yesterday.
