Tips and Tools for Small Business Leaders

What’s the difference between managing and leading when you’re the owner of a small business? And is there a “right” percentage of time you should spend in each?

People sometimes equate managing and leading as the same thing. While there’s overlap, there are distinct differences between the behaviors and their effects on an organization.

Managing involves things like budgets, expense control, hiring and firing, and maintaining people and equipment needs. Leading is thinking about the future and what needs to be done to get to where you want to be, setting vision, articulating it to everyone, and monitoring external factors like competition and economic conditions.

Managing requires a focus on the day-to-day activities. It’s about running the operations insuring accuracy and efficiency. Leading is about preparing the ground for the future you’re trying to create. This means you’re spending more time thinking about new products you’d like to launch, geographical areas you’d like to expand into, preparing people for new roles, changes necessary to enhance your culture, and ways to increase retention of your high performers. You want your mind and the minds of your leaders to focus on optimizing the business instead of simply managing it.

Both managing and leading are essential when running a small business. One is not better than the other. Someone said “The main difference between managing and leading is that managers have people who work for them and leaders have people who follow them.” While we agree, we think a more profound, practical difference is whether you want to maintain your company or grow it.

Read more and check out our Management and Leadership Activities Chart to estimate how much time you spend in each area.

Growth Plan Workshop

June 22, 2023
Holiday Inn Indianapolis Airport
8555 Stansted Road, Indianapolis

9 am - 3 pm

NEW
"Coffee and Connect" from 8:30 - 9 am and
"Cocktail and Connect" after the workshop

Discover the potential in your business by completing your Single Sheet Business Plan. Then break it into quarterly, monthly, weekly & daily goals and get a line-of-sight from your daily tasks to your 10-30 year purpose. Step out of the day-to-day business for just 1 day, get organized, complete a prescribed planning process, and walk away with an action plan that leads to greater profits and free time back.

For owners & leaders of small to medium sized businesses. Bring your 2nd-in-command or your whole leadership team!

*Registration Required