In June of this year the AMS Executive and HR teams organized a Team Breakout Lunch for Managers, Directors and Executives with the goal in mind of improving communication. On August 29th another Team Breakout Lunch took place in the on-campus Advance My Skills Learning Center where the objective of participants was to learn about and discuss the differences between being a leader and a manager.
The teams were:Operations, Client Services, Sales, Finance, Facility & Core Operations, IT, and Human Resources. Facilitators for the meeting included CEO, Ken Wiseman, President, Jay Catlin, Carmen Kernek, HR Director, and Lesa Evans, Recruiting Manager.
After enjoying lunch and team discussions, the teams completed an exercise to expand and refine their knowledge of what leadership looks like in different scenarios, and a second exercise asking how they would demonstrate specific leadership skills such as integrity, team building and communication in their daily work.
They then discussed concepts from a document entitled, How are Leadership and Management Different? Articles on the subject were also distributed to the teams covering, among other things, the differences between managers and leaders, leadership skills that managers need for success, and the differences between a boss and a leader.
Attendees found the luncheon to be very interesting and beneficial.
AMS HR Director, Carmen Kernek, expressed her appreciation of the luncheon saying, “We had great examples and discussion regarding how leaders are more visionary and strategic while managers are normally more tactical. We also discussed the fact that a good leader may have both attributes, which makes them have the potential of being a very valuable asset.”
Michael Gumm, Senior Account Manager on the Client Services Team, offered some of his favorite quotes from the event.
“Leaders create the vision, Managers create goals.”
“Leaders take risks, Managers control risk.”
“Leaders create the process, Managers enforce the process.”
He also offered some of his take-aways:
* Leaders have the ability to establish good positive rapport with all types of people. They know that creating a good rapport with various types of employees, peers, managers, and directors will lead to a positive overall outcome.
* Depending on the situation, leaders can resolve issues and disagreements without escalating or involving too many people.
* Managers are good at focusing on repeating a process, leaders focus on improving the process and questioning the process.
Michael said, “This was my favorite of all the lunches yet. A lot of the qualities and tendencies that we talked about made me feel confident that I am a leader. I also heard some that presented areas for improvement. Very much enjoyed this discussion!”