From Manager to Leader: Unleashing Executive Potential for Organisational Growth

Stepping into a management role is a huge achievement and something that anybody should be proud of. Management isn’t for everybody and comes with its own set of challenges and growth opportunities. 

However, being a manager is the first step into true leadership, and knowing how to transition into an executive leadership role can feel nearly impossible in the early stages. Great managers must look to evolve into leaders who can drive growth, inspire teams, and shape company culture.

Let’s break down management vs leadership

When you’re a manager, you’re heavily focused on controlling a specific group of people to achieve a shared goal. Leadership is still focused on achieving goals but instead encompasses someone having the ability to motivate, influence, and contribute to the organisation's success beyond targets. A leader is someone who is integral to the culture of the organisation due to the positive impact that they have. 

All leaders can be classified as managers, but not all managers are classified as leaders. To encapsulate this in a sentence: leaders look to inspire and motivate, whereas managers look to achieve targets and manage performance.

“The leader of the team comes up with new ideas and kickstarts the organization’s shift or transition to a forward-thinking phase. A leader always has his or her eyes set on the horizon, developing new techniques and strategies for the organization. A leader has immense knowledge of all the current trends, advancements, and skill sets—and has a clarity of purpose and vision. By contrast, a manager is someone who generally only maintains what is already established. A manager needs to watch the bottom line while controlling employees and workflow in the organization and preventing any chaos.” - [source]

How can you evolve from manager to leader?

It’s important to note that evolving into a leader takes time, and there isn’t a set criterion that you must follow to guarantee that you’ll be seen as a leader vs a manager. However, there are some elements that you can consider so you can embrace the behaviours and practices of respected leaders: 

#1 Take a deep interest in company culture and how your team impacts this

Company culture is the lifeblood of your organisation, and can continuously change (positively and negatively) depending on how people within the organisation respond to it. You have a responsibility as a leader to take an interest in the company’s culture, and more importantly, how your team positively or negatively impacts this. 

Are they upholding the company's values? Are they engaged in the culture of the business? And finally, are they contributing to the culture of the business? A leader will have a great understanding of this and will be innately focused on how to positively impact company culture.

#2 Focus on developing your emotional intelligence

Although emotional intelligence can be something you naturally possess, is it also something that you can work on over time. Great leaders possess emotional intelligence, so they can understand the intricacies of their team and the varied personalities that they’re dealing with on a day-to-day basis. 

True leaders will be obsessed with elevating their emotional intelligence so they can connect with their team and peers better. 

#3 Assess your team holistically instead of through just targets

Although metrics are important for business performance, they shouldn’t define how you interact with your team. Assessing someone holistically: their attitude, their personality, their contribution to culture, their potential, and then their performance is a great way to look at someone from a holistic viewpoint. Leaders don’t base their opinion on someone on a targeted weekly basis, it’s instead rooted in relationship building and understanding how the minds within your team work.

What impact can this have on organisational growth?

Ultimately, having a team of managers vs a team of leaders will yield different results. The key is to not force all of your managers to become leaders; instead, focus on the managers who have the potential for leadership and nurture them down that path. It’s critical to note that not everybody is made to be a leader, and it’s also important to recognise that businesses do need managers who can have different styles and get results differently. 

However, a healthy mixture of managers and leaders can impact your organisational growth, not just at a grassroots level, such as performance and the amount of money that is made, but also at a cultural level across areas such as diversity, employee satisfaction, innovation, and so much more.