How Sustainable Value Creation is Achieved through Collaborative Leaders and Managers

Synergizing the roles of leaders and managers is much like finding the puzzle pieces that fit together to deliver the entire picture. While this paper will not cover the specific puzzle pieces in the image, the message is compatible.

Productivity, efficiency, and engagement all increase when leaders and managers embrace each other’s value in the workforce. Collaboration is discussed as the secret ingredient for managers to use with employees, but real power comes from leaders and managers collaborating with each other. In fact, it’s twice the punch! When employees see managers collaborating with leaders, they believe in their manager’s efforts to collaborate with them.

Some of the difficulty in this collaboration is that the skills for effective management and dynamic leadership are distinctly different. Listed below are 5 key areas that leaders and managers should focus on creating symbiotic, collaborative relationships in order to maximize the value each offers to the company.

1. Leaders envision the opportunities for growth and goals for accomplishing the business’ mission, while management fulfills the vision.

 Someone needs to see the possible future among all the possibilities in today’s digitally expanding world and have the passion to inspire belief in its mission and goals to the employees (from executive, senior and mid-level managers to hourly workers). This is part of what great leaders do every day. Great managers have the commitment, skills, and tenacity to do whatever it takes to accomplish the vision and goals communicated by the leader. One of the key roles of managers is to provide accurate feedback and analysis as projects move toward the vision. Sometimes this feedback is negative and can be painful for both the messenger and the leader. This creates danger if the leader feels the message comes from someone resisting change. When both leaders and managers trust that they are working for the same goal, the feedback loop provides faster corrections and ultimately bigger wins.

2. Great leaders know that the most consistent truth in business is change; managers rely on consistency to measure, adjust, and deliver.

 Gone are the days when change comes with change in leadership. Companies who are not constantly adapting and evolving are unlikely to last long enough to create change by changing leadership. Of course leadership change is required when current leadership is failing. Most managers view change as a risk—which it is. That doesn’t make them ineffective, but it does require a change in how policies, processes, and procedures are identified, implemented, and reviewed in order to keep pace with the changes that come in our hyper evolving world.

 3. Leaders tend to be concept oriented while managers revel in the details.

 Viewing things conceptually allows leaders to digest large amounts of information with sound, though not thorough, understanding. This allows them to quickly make associations and connections with a wide range of customer data, market trends, technical advances, competitive advantages, and potential obstacles. From this comes the term of “seeing the big picture.” Managers see the detail in creating the picture. To the leader these details can seem tedious at best and onerous at worst. That’s why great managers learn how to spell out details in ways that enhance the picture painted—meaning they need to understand the language of their leader and respond with language that shows they catch the vision, are passionate about it, and want to deliver it. This often makes successful managers bi-lingual. They need to be able to speak in the language of their employees (who tend to be detail oriented), in order to get things done and inspire confidence in direct reports, while speaking more pictorially to their leaders.

4. Leaders must be willing to take risks, while managers need to be able to properly mitigate risks.

 Let’s face it—to be in business is to accept risk. If success came without risk, everyone would succeed. Some of the best leaders are willing to take risks because they start with the vision followed by asking for feedback from risk adverse managers. Great leaders know that they are likely to miss the hurdles, roadblocks, and obstacles associated with any exciting idea. How many great ideas are likely to start with “what profitable effort can we create without risk? Not many. Likewise, risk adverse managers realize that the common goal in any new (and existing) initiative is to succeed by passionately pursuing the goal in the wisest way possible. Managers owe it to the company to present all the potential problems, short falls, regulations, competition, etc., that can get in the way. They also need to then listen carefully to solutions and/or mitigations proposed to overcome the obstacles. This is where trust between leaders and managers becomes critical.

5. Accountability and recognition needs to apply to both—at all levels.

By virtue of their leadership (either in title or influence) leaders are prominently recognized. What is often overlooked is the recognition of key managers who were critical in executing and delivering the accomplishment credited to the leader. There is a saying that “great ideas are a dime a dozen, but the person who carries them out is worth a million.” Great leaders recognize that both carried out the work and include managers in the recognition.

Accountability is equally tricky—and often placed on the leader. Yes, leaders who fail to involve managers and appreciate their contribution will lose them over time, and failure rests solely on their shoulders. However, there is failure in management’s responsibilities when they fail to provide the proper feedback during each step of implementing a vision, initiative, or project.

 In the long run, companies will fail, or fail to grow, without recognizing the equal contribution made by those with a passion and flair for leadership and those with staying power and commitment to managing. As in all relationships, mutual trust and admiration for each other’s roles will bring lasting stability, success, and growth.