Two philosophies of Management
Jun 13th, 2003 -- Matthew Heusser

      In my travels and experience, I have come across two fundamental ways of thinking of management. Most "management styles" are, in fact, just a choice somewhere between these two polar opposites. However, before we get into those styles, I'd like to tell a short story.

The year was 1996 ...
      I was in college, and was renting a townhouse with three other friends from a Christian club on campus. The club president rented with us, and the leadership team decided to have a party at our place Saturday night.
      The first problem was taking the 'interested' list and calling all sixty names. Apparently, the list was passed around various people until, on Saturday morning, someone passed the list to me "could you call these people?" ... of course, fifty-five names remained on the list.
      So, I made some phone calls. Then, a buddy and I realized the house was a mess, and we cleaned and vacuumed. I went to get snacks, drinks, and paper plates/cups, and he ran off to get some games for that night.
      Now, you have to understand the culture of the club. Everyone wanted to be on the leadership team, because the leaders were the bosses: They were respected, they got to tell people what to do, they got to give impressive public speeches, and they were counselors and mentors to us newbies.
      A few weeks later, I had an opportunity to read the student handbook for our club. It said that the leadership team should be working behind the scenes: Arranging speakers (because students are not qualified to speak), setting up facilities, getting refreshments, etc. In fact, no one should really know or even be able to figure out who is on the leadership team, because the leaders should be the biggest servants.

      Now I ask:
(1) Who was really on the leadership team?
(2) What's going on here?

      After a few years of distance and thought, I believe that the culture was one of manager as chief strategist, when it should have been manager as servant.

The Manager as Chief Strategist
      In this world-view, the manager is the boss. People are resources the manager can use to accomplish his goals.

The Manager as Servant
      With this view, the manager pushes the goals down to his subordinates. Instead of giving orders, it then becomes the manager's job to run around, re-arranging the furniture to make it possible for the subordinates to get the work done¹.

      Think about this for a moment. Offhand, most of us would admit that the manager as servant is the correct philosophy -- that it is "right" ... but how much of our chain-of-command and encampment culture is really about service?

      The reality is simply this: You manage things. You lead people². The manager as chief strategist is an attempt to treat people like things, and it doesn't work.

      True leadership is service, and must be thought of as duty, not privilege³. Of course, we all know this: The challenge is to actually do it.

      Now, I am not saying that leaders should never give orders. Of course, if you have inexperienced subordinates, you will have to direct them -- and as they gain more experience and tasks become more routine, you slowly move from directing to guiding to mentoring, then coaching, then delegating. I'm dealing with the attitude that underlies the style.

      I would like to end with a quote from a character in one of the novels of W.E.B. Griffin:

      "When I was cadet at West Point, I was told, and I believed, and my experience has proven true, that the essence of leadership is this: Men must have faith in their officers. Officers build and establish that faith in a number of ways. They never lie to their troops. They never give an order they themselves are unwilling, or unable to obey. And they never enjoy a creature comfort until the last private in the rear rank has that same creature comfort. Gentlemen, if you can keep that in mind, I'm sure we'll get along just fine.⁴"

Matthew Heusser,
Senior Columnist, CadetStuff.org

Footnotes:
1) Peopleware, Demarco/Lister, Dorsett House Publications
2) The Practice Of Management, Peter Drucker, Harper-Pernnial
3) The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey
4) The Captains, W.E.B. Griffin