19. LEADER or MANAGER - Which Should You Be as a CEO?

What I've learned over the last 20 years of my career that's been in the military, it's been in corporate America, it's been as the CEO of my own firm, is that there's this really important distinction between leadership and management. And for you, as the CEO of your own firm, you've got to understand those nuances between the role of leader and manager. And if you don't understand how to do both of those roles, well, what you end up with is a team of people that tend to be less bought in, less inspired, and ultimately less productive. And I know that's not what you want for you, your company, or your team.

Hey there. My name is Michael King. Welcome back to the Connected Accountant. Today I want to talk to those of you that are trying to build a team in your firm, but not just any team. You're trying to build a team of people that are bought in to your vision and your mission for the company. You want to build a team of people that are highly productive. They get a lot of things done, but you also want to build a team of people that are fulfilled by the work that they're doing, if that's the kind of team you want to build. What I want to talk to you about today is you've got to understand the difference between leadership and management. Those two things are very different. Sometimes there's a little Venn diagram thing going on where there's overlap, but those are two different skill sets. Those are two different roles that you as the CEO have to lean into. And so today, what I want to do is just share with you the distinction between those two roles. And then I'm going to let you know my thoughts on which one of those two roles you need to be leaning into the most as a CEO. Let's start our discussion by first talking about what it means to be a leader or what leadership is. Now, I went to business school. Don't hold that against me. But in business school, they pour out all of this gobbledygook about what it means to be a leader. They talk a lot about, you know, a leader is somebody that sets the strategic vision for a company, or a leader, somebody that sets the three to five year plan for a department. And I'm like, none of that stuff is actually real life. That stuff just sounds great in a textbook, but it's not really applicable to the real world. So what does it mean to be a leader? When I talk about this with people, I like to give an example of a restaurant. So imagine for A moment that we're in a restaurant and I ask you, who is the lowest paid person in the entire restaurant? And as you look around, you might think that the lowest paid person is the table busser, or you might think that dishwasher, or maybe it's the host or the hostess that's seating people. Let's just assume for this discussion that the dishwasher is the lowest paid person in the restaurant. And what I would then ask you is, can the dishwasher be a leader within that team, within the restaurant? And normally when I ask people that, they sit there and they think for a second and they respond, absolutely, the dishwasher could absolutely be a leader on that team. And I say, well, is the, is the dishwasher connected to the strategic vision? Do they set the strategic vision of the restaurant? Are they in any way, shape or form connected to helping establish the three to five year roadmap for their department? And of course the answer is no. And what that normally does is it creates this aha moment that maybe we need to rethink what our definition of a leader is. And I think that leadership is actually a pretty simple definition. Leadership, just like that person in the kitchen, is just somebody that helps motivate and inspire others to take action. And I would venture to guess that if you sit back and think about amazing leaders that you've been around in your time, those were just people that motivated you or inspired you in some way, shape or form. Think back to the great leaders. They were people that motivated and inspired others to take action they wouldn't have otherwise taken. And as the CEO of your own business, that's absolutely an important role for you. You've got to motivate and inspire people on your team to take action. So where does that leave us with management? Well, I think management is actually a fairly simple, straightforward definition as well. Management is simply the implementation, the oversight, the execution of processes and procedures. So when I think about management, it's all around getting things out the door. Whether that's a service, whether it's a product. Management is just the oversight of that process of getting things out the door. So in summary, leadership is about people. Management is about things. And as you might imagine, as the CEO of a small firm, you've got to lean into both of those roles. Sometimes you've got to motivate and inspire your team. Sometimes you've got to implement or oversee processes and procedures to make sure that your services get out the door. The deliverables get sent to your clients. Which one of Those is more important. Well, I'd say if you could only focus on one, it would be leadership. I think that there's nothing more important than people, and I think that you, as the CEO, filling that role is the person that motivates and inspires them to take action. And to do amazing things is probably the most important. But I would also caution you, you can't neglect that managerial role as well. You can't just put aside processes and procedures and making sure things get done in an efficient and scalable manner in a profitable way. Both very important. If you're somebody that's growing a team or you are somebody that already has a team, then I've got a challeng for you today. I want you to block 30 to 60 minutes off on your calendar, and I want you to sit down with a pen and paper, and I want you to list out how you want to be known as a leader. In other words, I want you to think about. Okay. When my team thinks about me, I want them to think about me in these ways. So maybe you want to be known as the type of leader that's empathetic, or maybe you're the type of leader that wants to be known as a steady and cool hand, somebody that's a visionary or super inspiring. I don't know what it is that you want to be known as as a leader, but what I do want you to do is be intentional about leading that way. And the best way I've found to do that is just to list out the characteristics that I want people to think of me as is a leader. And then from time to time, I reflect back on that list and I ask myself, am I leading in congruence with that list? Am I doing the things that I need to do to be the type of leader that I want to be? All right. I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did, it would mean the world to me if you would share it with a friend. In the meantime, I can't wait to see you back right here next week, same time. See you then, my friend.

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