Leading VS Managing

I read Anne Jackson’s new book, Mad Church Disease, a few months ago. This quote from Wayne Cordeiro, the senior pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Oahu, Hawaii keeps reverberating through my brain. In describing some practices he changed as a result of dealing with ministry burnout, he offered this:

“I’ve learned that God has made me to be a leader, not a ‘manager.’ I was pulled in to ‘managing’ for a few years as my main course. That diminished my leadership immune system, and I became susceptible to contagious maladies such as discouragement, exasperation, and being demotivated by others.”

There is a distinction between leading and managing. They are two entirely different roles. Both are valuable to an organization, but rarely is a person gifted to both lead and manage. They are typically wired up to do one or the other.

In their book First, Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman defined both roles like this:

Managers – “Great managers look inward. They look inside the company, into each individual, into the differences in style, goals, needs, and motivation of each person. These differences are small, subtle, but great managers need to pay attention to them. These subtle differences guide them toward the right way to release each person’s unique talents into performance.”

Leaders – “Great leaders look outward. They look out at the competition, out at the future, out at alternative routes forward. They focus on broad patterns, finding connections, cracks, and then press home their advantage where the resistance is weakest. They must be visionaries, strategic thinkers, activators. When played well, this is, without doubt, a critical role. But it doesn’t have much to do with the challenge of turning one individual’s talents into performance.”

That’s how Buckingham and Coffman described the two roles in marketplace organizations, but the Bible also distinguishes these two rules. The spiritual gift of leadership found in Romans 12:8 is very different from the spiritual gift of management (or administration) found in I Corinthians 12:28. Few people have both of these gifts, but both are needed within a healthy church body.

The point here isn’t to value one of these gifts over the other. (That would be a fruitless exercise because both are needed for a church or any organization to function properly.) However, I think it’s essential to identify how we are gifted and to also consider those we are responsible for in our ministry roles. If we are trying to be a manager when we’re actually a leader, we will be unfulfilled and face ministry burnout like Wayne described. Likewise, if we’re forced into a leadership role when we’re actually a manager, we will face the same challenges.

• So, here are some questions to consider, pray about and discuss with your team:
• Are you a leader or manager? (How do you know?)
• Are you in a role that allows you to lead or manage according to your gifts?
• Do you know whether or not the people working for you are leaders or managers?
• Are they serving in roles that fit their giftedness?
• Have you defined what roles in your organization need leaders and which ones need managers?
• When one of those roles are open, are you trying to find the person who is best gifted to lead or manage?

I consider this a big topic that churches, generally, have failed to address. I challenge you to prayerfully consider this in the coming days for yourselves and your teammates. The health of your ministry, both personal and corporate, is at stake. And, while you’re at it, invite your ministry team to press into this conversation as well. Take a staff meeting to discuss the differences and challenge your team to make sure they are in a position that best reflects the way God created them…whether they are leaders, managers or neither.

God wants you serving where he designed you to be serving; to do otherwise is to disobey God. Are you staring ministry burnout in the face? Is it because you’re not doing what God created you to do?

12 Comments »

1. Good article about the importance of leading and managing!

   Comment by Mike Tinnon - Jan 19, 2010 @ 09:42 AM

2. wow. tony is smart.

   Comment by John (Human3rror) - Jan 19, 2010 @ 09:58 AM

3. I agree totally with this post.  I have written about this subject frequently as I continue to learn my own strengths and weaknesses.

   Comment by Ron Edmondson - Jan 19, 2010 @ 10:22 AM

4. Rings true for me as well. I need to distinguish myself as one or the other. Oftentimes I try to do well at both. I wonder how much more effective I could be by focusing my energy into one.

   Comment by Simon Nompone - Jan 19, 2010 @ 02:10 PM

5. I agree they are different. But even the descriptions have a not so subtle vibe about which one is more valuable. Managing seems to get lip service only. Everyone wants to be the “leader guy.”

   I am crazy here?

   Comment by Brice Bohrer - Jan 19, 2010 @ 03:38 PM

6. I believe Bruce is touching on a key insight in the discussion of leaders/managers.

   There is no question that one should be self aware of one’s calling, gifting and talents and then be obedient to function in that calling. It is sad that so few seem to have that level of self awareness and instead exert so much energy in trying to be someone God never created them to be, talk about a hard yoke and heavy burden to bear. Painful!

   I am coming to the conclusion that the whole leader manager conversation is unproductive and unhelpful. It is so colored by “corporate speak”  everyone knows that leaders are “upper level” and managers are lower and mid level according to corporate structures but none of that has biblical basis. I find it far more helpful to view biblical servant leadership thru a Ephesians 4 lens and see them all equally valuable and essential for a vibrant and healthy faith community that builds itself up in love.

   Comment by Joe Cavanaugh - Jan 20, 2010 @ 12:26 AM

7. “Managers do things right—-Leaders do the right things.” Warren Bennis..On Becoming a Leader.

   Comment by Rick Brewer - Jan 20, 2010 @ 09:40 AM

8. Rick, that is a perfect example of the overly simplistic corporate speak that is very demeaning to those who function as managers. Look at the definition of a manager that is contained in this article. To focus on developing and mentoring people is doing the wrong thing?! I don’t think so. I have never known a leader worth his salt that doesn’t have some degree of management skills. I have also never known a good manager who doesn’t possess some leadership skills. I believe there is a continuum with leadership skills on one end and management skills on the other. Either extreme is not healthy or effective.

   Comment by Joe Cavanaugh - Jan 20, 2010 @ 09:53 AM

9. It is my personal opinion baised on 35 years as an effective executive. That the term “CorporateSpeak” is over used by people that have very little expierence in the real world and having not been effective in life and business.
   I think that real Leaders are born with the gift of forsight and understanding. I also think that Managers are well trained and educated in business by others with a vast expierence level in any given diciplin. The combination of these terms, Leader and Manager are more often brought together than we might think. A Leader seaks outside counsel and embraces it. A manager depends on principals taught in strict form and application.
   The thought that Leaders are relegated to upper level positions is false, as well as Managers being Lower level. Some of the best Leaders I have known have been lower level managers with great Managment skills. This type of personality has delivered a success ratio far higher than the stereo typed or pigion holed Leader or lower level Manager. God wants us to be all that we can be, he wants us to run the good race and finish this life with nothing less than a burnt out shell. The self awareness that is spoken of is insight that only the maker and his child can determin. The level of success is in the mind of the recipiant that God has lead.

   Comment by Pat Daley - Jan 20, 2010 @ 05:38 PM

10. Pat, I think we are in agreement on the key concepts you have articulated, although I cannot agree with the born leader part.  I also have 3 decades plus of corporate CEO experience. I do not think corporate language is all that helpful in faith based environments as I believe Jesus was very clear about what kind of leadership He desires in His Body.

    Comment by Joe Cavanaugh - Jan 20, 2010 @ 06:13 PM

11. Many people that are posting here seem to be thinking that the “managers” are getting bashed.  I felt the opposite.  If I’m one, I would say that I am a leader.  As I read this article, internally I was asking questions like, “So I’m not good at managing others?”, or “Do I not pay attention to those around me?”  Sometimes I think this kind of labeling can be pigeon-holding.  What do y’all think?

    Also…my main question.  In this article, Tony says, “but the Bible also distinguishes these two rules. The spiritual gift of leadership found in Romans 12:8 is very different from the spiritual gift of management (or administration) found in I Corinthians 12:28.”  Does anyone have any feedback on exactly HOW the Bible distinguishes these two roles.  I’m not doubting, I want to learn more on this, seriously.  I’m wondering if the data here comes from the requirements of an elder or deacon stuff in Timothy and Titus?

    Comment by Patrick Trompeter - Feb 01, 2010 @ 08:22 AM

12. Thats why we need team so we have a leadership direction and admin a helmsman to keep it all happening in the real world!

    Comment by steve lee - Feb 12, 2010 @ 12:28 AM

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