“Lieutenant McKinnon, you are dead!”
I’ll never forget those words, barked at me by the Captain evaluating me on a dusty, hot morning at Fort Knox, Kentucky, early in my officer training.  I was leading a six-man team of fellow officers through a series of Leadership Simulation Exercises — the Army’s version of leadership training scenarios like you might encounter in an Outward Bound-type setting.  We had a problem, in this case, getting our entire team to the other side of a “room” laced with tripwires and “explosives,” that we had to solve in a limited amount of time.  Rapid-fire assessment, delegation, direction-setting, monitoring and action were demanded in a pressure-filled, time-limited environment.  The grade would be either Mission Accomplished or Mission Failure — no in-between.

Sound like one of your days at the office?

I recall teetering at a weird angle on one foot trying to avoid a tripwire when our evaluator simulated my death.  At that moment, most of the rest of my teammates were standing behind me, where they had been offering ideas and waiting for direction.  As the remaining minutes ticked down, the “survivors” struggled in confusion to reorganize, designate a new Leader and make a fresh attempt at crossing the room.  They failed to complete the mission.  I failed as a leader.
I learned an important lesson that morning, a lesson that resonates today as I work with Leaders trying to survive and thrive amidst the chaos and challenge of our current business environment.  I was out front, trying to solve the problem myself.  I was caught up in the doing.  I was not leading.  You might say I was managing.  It’s a lesson I refer to as “Understanding The Leader’s Place”  — knowing the place that only the Leader can stand in.
In this Place, the Leader has a unique perspective on the challenges at hand.  The Leader is able to see what others cannot; able to deploy the best talent instead of being the best talent; able to think about what’s next instead of being consumed with what’s present.  He or she is in the fight but not necessarily at the front of it.
So here is the great temptation that tugs at Leaders everywhere right now.  Sales are down.  Renewals are struggling.  Old ways of doing things are not working.  Customers are demanding new service and product offerings . . . at lower prices.  The temptation is for Leaders to vacate their leadership place and step into the thick of things as a manager.  CEOs who came up through the sales ranks return to being the company’s lead salesman, instead of leading the whole company.  CEOs who created the company’s core technology return to tinkering with the technology, at the expense of leading the company.  Leaders revert to being great managers instead of . . . leading the company.
Much has been written over the years about the distinction between leaders and managers*.  But let me borrow from a list developed by Warren Bennis in his leadership classic, On Becoming a Leader, to provide you a checklist for assessing which place you stand in today.  CAUTION: some of these require more than a moment of thought . . .

The manager administers; the Leader innovates.
The manager is a copy; the Leader is an original.
The manager maintains; the Leader develops.
The manager focuses on systems and structure; the Leader focuses on people.
The manager relies on control; the Leader inspires trust.
The manager has a short-term view; the Leader has a long-range perspective.
The manager asks how and when; the Leader asks what and why.
The manager has his eye always on the bottom line; the Leader has his eye on the horizon.
The manager imitates; the Leader originates.
The manager accepts the status quo; the Leader challenges it.
The manager is a classic good soldier; the Leader is his own person.
The manager does things right; the Leader does the right things.

Have you done more managing or leading today?  If the answer is “managing,” then who’s in the Leader’s Place?  What steps do you need to take to spend more time in The Leader’s Place?
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I’d be interested to hear your observations on leading and managing;  leave your Comments on the blog for others to learn here.  And if you think this could be helpful . . .
Forward this to a Leader.
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* ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:  One of my earliest readings that continues to be relevant was John Kotter’s HBR Classic: “Managers and Leaders: Are They Different?”  Though geared toward entrepreneurs, Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth Revisited captures this distinction in story form.  More recently, The Leader Within, co-authored by Ken Blanchard and three others, devotes a section (see Chart 6.1 on page 172) that synthesizes the past two to three decades of literature on this topic.  It is a helpful summary and one Leaders should be familiar with as they lead themselves and their managers. Let’s be clear, an organization needs both Leaders AND managers!