A Culture of Leadership: Why Every Manager Should Become a Leader

Leadership vs. Management: What’s the Difference?

The difference between leaders and managers isn’t necessarily seniority. Equipped with the right tools and support, first-time managers can quickly develop into leaders. Likewise, some senior “leaders” do little to deserve the title. 

As at least one Indeed article has noted, “Even though managers are usually supervisors, not all managers are considered leaders. Generally, a leader keeps in mind an entire organization and works in tandem with all employees to achieve success, while a manager focuses solely on accomplishing a set of goals within one specific group or team.”

Although most managers today have evolved beyond the top-down command-and-control style of the past century, there’s still an ocean between leadership and management. Managers instruct; leaders influence. Managers enforce; leaders empower. That’s worth aspiring to at every level, from team leader to the C-suite.

That’s why transforming your managers — even those just starting their management careers — into leaders is so important. Here are five strategies to help.

Set Your Vision 

It’s less about developing a handful of senior managers into leadership positions and more about implementing widespread change across the organization, which includes everyone who manages people. You need your new junior managers on board as much as your seasoned management pros. For most organizations, that demands culture change. 

Treat this as the major undertaking it is: Devote resources, galvanize support from the top and communicate your vision outward. Everyone in the business should understand the management culture you’re trying to create.

Educate, Train and Coach

Leadership — although always characterized by influence and empowerment rather than control and command — looks different at different levels. This means your employees will need support to build different skills and capabilities throughout their careers.

Evaluate Your Processes and Policies 

Your formal processes, structures and policies must support the changes you’re asking your managers to make. 

In this context, performance management is a major factor. If your managers’ performance is measured only against their output as an employee, or against hard metrics like team revenue, you disincentivize change. Instead, incentivize your managers to lead by integrating metrics like team feedback scores into evaluations.

Prompt the Leadership Team to Model the Right Behaviors 

Existing leaders play a crucial role in creating a culture of manager-leaders. “Leaders strongly shape their followers’ beliefs,” according to a 2018 study in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. Leaders are “role models” and “belief managers.” 

Ultimately, the goal is for every manager to be a leader, but this change must start by galvanizing support from the top. The leadership team must embody the changes you want other managers to embody. 

Examine Who You Hire

Most of these tactics are about building leadership skills among existing managers. In reality, this process starts even earlier with the people brought into the business. 

You need to consider who you’re starting with: If you’re not hiring people with leadership potential, you’ll struggle to build a leadership culture. (This guide can help you get started.) Only 11% of organizations have a strong or very strong leadership bench. Given that success rates for executives hired internally are 25% higher than those of external hires, boosting organizational leadership skills is key. “When transitioning to a leadership role, you may not know how much your people are struggling,” Stephanie Neal, director of DDI’s Center for Analytics and Behavioral Research, said in the report. “Wanting to make a good impression, leaders may push through difficulty with a smile, hoping no one notices how they’re falling behind.”   

Start developing a culture of leadership at the bottom of the pyramid, then cultivate leadership qualities among all your managers. Even the newest team captain should lead, not just manage.