THE LEADER

Ray separates the role of manager and leader. They’re two different things. You can be a manager and say, “you have to turn a widget so much each day, and if you don’t – I’m going to come talk to you”. There are tons of people who can be managers. There’s also a lot of leaders that aren’t managers. He says you can tell who a leader is in our own organizations by looking at who constantly has someone at their desk. Who is the person that people will go to, asking for advice, counsel? Leaders are good at building trust and are willing to add value to others consistently. Leaders try to find ways to help others and legitimately want to. When that happens, people come to your desk.

In Ray’s case, he has been a great manager and he had to learn how to be a leader. He believes that leadership is a trainable attribute. When he was in the manufacturing industry, he was thrown into a less than ideal situation, having to figure out how to cut costs by 40% to keep the facility open. He was good at being the person who could hold face and manage –but he shifted the way he would manage by evolving his ability, learning how to be a lead versus a manager, and change the focus from being accountability-driven to finding out how to find those people that want to go crazy far in their career and help them find their ambition, challenge them, and push them.