What makes a leader and what makes a good people manager?

Harvard Business Review – that go-to for any query about this ‘peopley’ stuff – tells us that: “Leadership refers to an individual’s ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward organisational success. Influence and inspiration separate leaders from managers, not power and control.” I disagree, because I believe both managers and leaders should influence, motivate and enable others, and so on. That is not the difference.

So, let’s turn to Brian Tracy, who by the way wrote Eat That Frog – a book that, 20 years ago, changed the way I saw time management. Brian says in an eight-minute video that leaders need to have over 30 qualities. I agree, but only in as much as any knowledge (office) worker needs to have a lot of soft skills. From time management to communication to influencing, and so on. That doesn’t answer the question. The question is about the difference. Here’s my take…

Frank Serpico was a New York cop. Not special in any way. Just a cop. In the late 1960s, he blew the whistle on fellow officers that were taking bribes. He didn’t do this because he was a director, or specially appointed, or asked. He did it because he thought it was the right thing to do and even though it jeopardised his life and his career, he made a decision and stuck to it.

Leaders can be such because they have the title, like director or CEO. Leaders can also be those without titles. Plus, directors and CEOs can also not be leaders – we’ve all worked with one that never made a decision. The difference, I believe, is that leaders have these three qualities:

Quality #1 – big picture (BP)

They strive to see the bigger picture. Ray Kroc, the man behind McDonald’s, wanted to create a consistent burger. Simple, but that was his big picture.

Quality #2 – big decisions (BD)

The courage to make decisions about what the vision is and how it is achieved, and to accept the consequences, good or bad. Frank Serpico made that decision.

Quality #3 – big belief (BB)

Imagine if every failure had James Dyson questioning what he was doing to the point where he couldn’t move forward. Dyson wouldn’t be outselling Hoover by a ratio of four to one in the UK, that’s for sure.