Leadership versus Management in your Home Based Business

Tonight we are going to briefly cover the differences between leadership and management in your home based business. We have talked for the last few weeks about some habits to develop in order to help your home based business grow and prosper. In order for your business to continue to grow, you need to be sure that you have a good grasp of the differences between leadership and management.

Leadership is not management. Leadership is focusing on where you want your business to go, what you want to accomplish. Management is the process of doing so that you get to the goals you set. Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis said it best, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." How many times have you dealt with a manager that you felt didn't have the slightest idea of what they were doing? This manager was doing everything "by the book" but by just following the written rules, was making a bigger mess of things than if they had just left the problem alone.

Basically management does not really require any thinking that could be classified as "out-of-the-box". Managers follow set procedures and make sure that things get done per pre-defined guidelines. Leaders look at those processes and decide if there could be a better way to do the job. Leaders will find ways to make the job better, more efficient, and profitable. Managers are basically there to get the job done.

As a small business owner, you want to be a leader, not a manager. It is your vision that will drive your business to greater heights. You cannot be a manager and drive your business to greater profits. Granted, you do need managers to get the jobs done, but you, as the small business owner, should not be a manager. You are the guide, the person who knows where you want to take the business. You have managers who do what you tell them to do and make sure that the various tasks that need to get done are completed correctly. Without managers, you can't take your business too far, but without leaders, you will never get anywhere.

The key to success is to have a solid direction that you want to go. No matter how good your manager is, if they do not have a clear direction of what you want done, or how you want the task completed, your business will not go very far at all. Your manager could be very effective at what they do, but if they don't know where you want to take the business, that manager could be driving your business in the wrong direction. You need to be a leader first and then worry about managing the business.

No matter how much you may want to manage your business, it is your job as the owner of the company to be the leader and basically make a path to where you want your business to go. In home based businesses, you probably don't have many (if any) people working for you, but you do have people that may be helping you to grow your business. The same rules apply. If you are not clear on where you want to take your home based business, then the people that you may have help you (essentially your managers) will not have a path to follow in order to help drive business in the direction you want. In many businesses, you have a team of people working together towards a common goal. If you are not clear in your picture of that goal, how can you effectively lead people toward that goal?

Even if your are the only person in your home based business, you need to think and act like a leader. By doing that, others will take notice of what you are doing and how you are doing it. If you become an effective leader, even just for yourself, you will find others beginning to take notice of your success and asking you how you achieved that success. In a short period of time you will find, even though you didn't plan it, that there will be people following what you are doing and essentially becoming managers to your leadership.

Tomorrow we will cover some more items to help you grow your home based business.

Until tomorrow...