The rise of the lanager: Why leadership and management can’t be split
What kind of manager are you?
Do you see it as your job to find a vision, to refine the bigger picture, and to consider the grand scheme? You don’t stop at simply defining what your company is doing now—you redefine it and glow it up for the future. You develop big dreams that push boundaries and lead to even larger goals.
Or maybe you’re the opposite.
You see it as your job to be in the thick of it with your employees. You know it is best to stay out of the clouds because the important work is done hands-on and in the now. You don’t just constantly interact with your people—you are in the trenches with them.
If you’re a manager who subscribes to either of these extremes, Suzy Welch has some hard talk you might need to hear.
There’s a chance that everyone hates you.
Welch, an NYU Stern School of Business professor, tech entrepreneur, and three-time New York Times best-selling author, says that the manager who focuses too much on lofty ideas and visionary innovation runs the risk of not actually getting anything concrete done. Alternatively, the manager who acts like a grunt might never rise up and define the vision for the people they are in charge of.
It doesn’t matter if you’re working with a small or large group, a great manager is one who balances the vision with the function. The leading with the managing. In an effort to define this, Welch came up with her own, self-admittedly unattractive term, “lanager.”
Become a band leader
Welch came up with the idea of the “lanager” in an effort to avoid using the terms leader and manager. “It’s only academics who debate what leaders do versus what managers do. And I actually believe, from living in the real world of business, that there’s really a blend of those two jobs in real life.”
Both concepts are important, but the essential aspect is combining the attributes.
For the micromanager, Welch makes the point that you can’t get the people around you to accomplish what you are asking of them if you don’t fully flesh out why you’re asking them to do it. When teaching, a favorite line she often uses is, “You have to tell the drummer what the words of the song are about.” The individual band members can’t be nearly as effective if they don’t know the intention behind the song or how it is supposed to feel.
This logic can be mirrored to the leader who does zero actual managing and just dictates the greater vision. This may give band members a list of adjectives that the leader likes and an overall vibe they are shooting for, but they don’t really know how they are expected to play it. What key are we in? Where do we start? Who fills what role? How do we function together?
Not only do performers need a why, they need a how. Only then can they execute to the best of their ability.
This isn’t just a hollow, theoretical example; it’s backed up by the Grammy-nominated band leader and instrumentalist Cory Wong. Every one of his band members is a dynamic performer and a top-tier musician, and his funk fusion is just as fun to watch as it is to listen to. But when you watch him perform, it is clear that he is neither just a guitarist in the front of a band nor an isolated conductor. He moves around the stage and involves himself in every detail while demonstrating the song’s personality.
In an interview he did for The Zak Kuhn Show, Wong says, “I do think some people come in, they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, it’d be so fun to come in and play saxophone or play bass or whatever random instrument in Cory’s band.’ Yes, but I am relentless when it comes to the attention to detail. … Some might say, ‘Oh man, he’s just really picky as a band leader.’ No. I’m particular.”
“I like to have fun and I don’t take myself too seriously. But the things I do take very seriously [are] the excellence in music, the artistry behind it, and the intentionality.” This intentionality is something that Welch speaks explicitly to in her examples.
Have a fingerprint
Being a lanager isn’t a simple job, in part because it is so easy to favor going to an extreme. While extremes are easy to define and make your tasks clearer, your functionality is limited because you can only be so effective. Being a good lanager requires a sense of balance and an ability to quickly pivot from the big idea to the micro task and back again.
After all, the vision informs the practical and vice versa.
As such, you will often find yourself traversing the middle ground. But don’t get stuck there, it may cause you to fall victim to becoming what Welch calls the worst thing in the world—fingerprintless.
This looks a bit like becoming a simple messenger, and a lanager needs to fight against this instinct. “When you’re a messenger, you sort of drop the bomb. You know, you say, ‘This is what they’re saying up there,’ and you just sort of keep your poker face about it. Or, you go up to the top and you say, ‘Everybody really wants to work from home two days, you know, blah, blah, blah.’ And then you just sort of stand there and you act like Switzerland. You’re neutral.”
“You’ve got to have conviction.”
Welch realizes that this can be a scary prospect and, in some cases, it may run the risk of shortening your career path because it forces you to take bold action. But the greater takeaway from this is the knowledge that you’ve stood on your principles and, as Welch says, your reputation for integrity will follow you.
Remember to make the call
A theme that runs through every idea we’ve discussed is intentionality. You know you can’t spend too much time in the clouds, but you also can’t spend too much time on the ground level. You need to learn to intuit which skill your team most needs at any given point in time. All the while, you need to leave your fingerprints everywhere so that your bosses and employees know you care and are invested. One parting bit of advice—be careful not to be too mindful or too thoughtful and end up paralyzing yourself.
“There is an incredible benefit to sometimes wallowing in a decision before you make it, hearing from all different people,” says Welch. “I want to get all the data. I want to hear all the opinions. And then, however, you must actually make the call.”
“You can’t move an organization forward if you don’t make decisions.”
Nobody likes making a tough decision, but a great lanager is someone who has trained themselves to work through this after considering all the elements they can possibly account for.
Suzy Welch didn’t say being a lanager was easy.
