Managing Tasks and Leading People

I went to a Birkman seminar this past weekend.

If you don't know what a Birmkan test or analysis is (I surely didn't) then think of it as a "What color is your parachute?" kind of training where huge corporations pay psychologists to evaluate their staff to see how to best maximize the variable coefficients between different personality grid alignments. Or in other words to teach co-workers not to be jerks to each other.

Normally I am a little skeptical of these things but this one was pretty good. One of the best things I think the facilitator said was that you manage tasks and you lead people. This was an important distinction for a those people who want to manage everything and those people who want to lead everything. You shouldn't try to "manage" a personality and you should try to "lead" a project.

This was the first time I have been exposed to these ideas and my gut instinct was to disagree, but then I remembered times when I had been "managed" and how annoying it was. And I definitely have tried to "lead" projects before when I should have been either brainstorming, planning, organizing, or implementing. So kudos to Birkman for pointing that out.

Manage or Lead

Multiple duties still undone
Accomplishments
Not yet realized.
Authoring to do lists
Gorged with tasks and
Engagements to be idealized. But

Other techniques apply when
Requesting people to see eye to eye.

Leadership is a skill
Encouraging learning of tasks and qualities anew.
A much better tact to take when
Developing members of your crew.