Leaders, not managers

AIM professors have learned to distinguish between the molding of business managers and the formation of entrepreneurial leaders and innovators. As molders of leaders, we must assume the role of mentors and coaches of our students. It is only then that we can become real educators as derived from the Latin root word, ducare, which means to lead. We must lead students out of themselves in order to fully actualize their leadership potentials.

So how do we distinguish between entrepreneurial leaders and mere managers? Here are seven major differences.

1. Managers run things well. They make sure that the people assigned to them are excellent workers who accomplish their tasks better than most. They are superior operators. Entrepreneurial leaders redefine their industry and change their business environment. They introduce new products, processes, and systems. They create new markets. They are great innovators.

2. Managers are good motivators. They are able to bring the performance levels of their people to new heights. Entrepreneurial leaders go beyond performance achievements. They inspire people to become leaders themselves. They are transformers of people since their impact can be seen not merely in the accomplishment of tasks but in the inner growth of their people.

3. Managers confront and engage their present environment and plan for the near future. They are short-term strategists and tacticians. Entrepreneurial leaders see far beyond the present and near future. They can intuit into the long term and divine how events will flow into the far future. They are visionaries and long-term strategists.

4. Managers are stationary pillars of strength. People adapt to them. They are the reference points of the organization. Entrepreneurial leaders are dynamic wheels of fortune. They adapt to evolving environments by changing their positioning and their way of doing things. They set moving targets and constantly keep abreast of the situation. They are flexible, fluid, and free.

5. Managers are output-oriented. They work hard in order to deliver the desired results and performance outcomes. Entrepreneurial leaders are value-driven. Beyond the desired results and performance outcomes, they inculcate long-lasting values that anchor the entire organization. They do not just do well, they do good. Society admires them not just for their victories but, more so, for their enduring legacies.

6. Managers are astute organizational designers and developers. They know how to build, structure, and move organizations. They know what will make organizations function and what will not. Entrepreneurial leaders are compassionate nurturers of organizational culture. Beyond the design and development of organizations, they espouse ideologies, offer philosophies, and establish guiding principles. They humanize the organization by giving each member due attention and recognition. They create a team by emphasizing participation, involvement, interaction, and communion.

7. Managers go for efficiency, economy, and effectiveness. Being efficient means maximizing output, given certain inputs. Being economical means maximizing economic benefits, given certain economic costs. Being effective means maximizing results, given certain efforts and resources. Entrepreneurial leaders strive for empathy, enthusiasm, and enlightenment. The empathetic leader is sensitive and totally aware of people. The empathetic leader has a high degree of social skills. He can relate to being one with others. The leader electrifies the organization by generating a lot of enthusiasm among his people. He arouses passion and zeal in everyone. The leader seeks true enlightenment by being able to detach himself from petty issues and by being responsive to the real issues that matter. He has the ability to see the truth and to do away with pretentiousness and false prophets.

The formation of entrepreneurial leaders and innovators, as applied to the teaching of management, poses challenges to educators and to the entrepreneur.

First, leader formators must themselves have the ability to lead. At the very least, they should be role models and wellsprings of inspiration. They must possess high leadership skills such as the ability to sense people and situations, the ability to listen, the ability to communicate, and the ability to rally their mentees to excel themselves in knowledge, skills, and wisdom.

Second, leader formators must be willing to take on the added responsibility of transforming each student into a leader. Leadership formation demands personal attention, true caring, and quality time beyond the classroom. It is much easier to teach management subjects and merely focus on imparting techniques such as problem solving, financial forecasting, organizational restructuring, market demand analysis, production scheduling, and information processing.

Third, leader formators must not only have high IQs but have high emotional quotients, high adversity quotients, and high intuition, creativity, and integrative thinking capabilities. High IQ may be sufficient for teaching management but the other intelligences of the brain are necessary for the formation of leaders. Sensitivity to people, high tolerance for crises and conflicts, an active beginner’s mind, insightfulness, and a wholistic perspective are but some of the job requirements for leader formators.

The challenge for the educator of entrepreneurial leaders and innovators is awesome. It requires a paradigm shift. And when I refer to educators, I do not mean only professors. I am also referring to entrepreneurs who must teach their managers to become leaders and innovators as well. At AIM, we are doing this with our business partners who have formed corporate universities. They come to AIM to help so that, together, we can nurture a culture of creativity and innovative leadership in their enterprise.

If educators and entrepreneurs want to be formators of entrepreneurial leaders and innovators, they must act as mentors and role models with full willingness and full dedication. They must aspire to be the new messiahs of this highly globalized, academically specialized, and technologically advanced millennium. While most schools and corporations rush to learn the complexities of cyber management, educators and entrepreneurs must remain steadfast in their resolve to form leaders who will disentangle these complexities and strike at the essence of what is important, what is relevant, and what will be responsive to the future in order to shape it.

(Eduardo A. Morato, Jr. is on the faculty of the W. SyCip Graduate School of Business of the Asian Institute of Management. For comments and inquiries, you may contact him at: [email protected]. Published "Entrepreneur’s Helpline" columns can be viewed on the AIM website at http//: www.aim.edu.ph).