Fundamentals of Leadership and Management in Public Procurement 1. Presenter: Bonnie Sletten, CPPO, C.P.M

Transcription

1 Fundamentals of Leadership and Management in Public Procurement 1 Fundamentals of Leadership and Management in Public Procurement Training Review Presenter: Bonnie Sletten, CPPO, C.P.M By: Eric Boyles NIGP Scholarship Recipient

2 Fundamentals of Leadership and Management 2 Abstract What is the difference between a leader and a manager? Some people would say there is no difference, while others will tell you the two could not be farther apart on the spectrum. I got to see firsthand the difference between the two while attending the NIGP hosted training, Fundamentals of Leadership and Management. This was a two-day training class, hosted by Bonnie Sletten, CPPO, C.P.M, who has over 25 years of experience in procurement. For the class, I received a scholarship from my local chapter of NIGP, and this paper is to fill the requirement to report on what I learned during the training.

3 Fundamentals of Leadership and Management 3 To Manage or Lead, that is the Question In today s fast-paced work environment, leaders and managers are becoming more important than ever. Take notice the effort to separate the two. A manager is defined as, a person responsible for controlling or administering all or part of a company or similar organization. The definition of leader is much different, the person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country. Some people will argue that there is no difference between the two, but in all reality, these two roles play very different parts within an organization or group. In this paper, we will investigate three distinct differences between the two roles and how that plays a part in the public procurement environment today. We will first look at where the skills of each role are learned, then we will look at the different functions each role plays, and lastly, we will look at where the two roles overlap in the public procurement environment. The famous American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be. One of the main topics that we during the training was where are the skills for management and leadership generated. One aspect presented was that Warren Bennis believed that managerial skills could be taught in the classroom, while leadership skills were only learned through experience. This idea fascinated me and raised many questions as to the difference between managerial and leadership skills. So many times in today s environment managers are required to also be leaders, and since leadership skills can only be learned through experience, often procurement managers may be challenged in that area. What I took out of the class was that the lines drawn by where you can gain these skills are not exactly that black and white. Great managers can be grown from no formal schooling, and great leaders often have to learn how to become a leader. The conclusion

4 Fundamentals of Leadership and Management 4 was that every person have both the skills of a leader and a manager to a certain point, it is the responsibility of an organization to develop those skills within their people. So what is the role of a manager, and what is the role of a leader? Luther Gulick outlined the function of every manager into one acronym, POSDCORB. Plan, Organize, Staff, Direct, Coordinate, Report, and Budget. None of these basic functions are flashy, but they sum up what the role of a manager is within an organization. On the other hand, the role of a leader is much different. Leaders have to inspire and create vision for an organization. During the training class we spent a good amount of time on what the characteristics of a good leader are and how to differentiate them from the characteristics of a manager. The one point that kept recurring through this section of the training was that an organization cannot exist without leadership and management. The relationship between leadership and management lies in the difference between the roles of the compass and rudder. Whereas the role of leadership offers the vision and goals of the organization, the role of management provides the hand on the tiller to maintain the selected course (McCue, Pitzer 43). As you can see these two roles are hand in hand within a good organization. Finally, as the class worked its way to the end, I found myself asking the same question, can one be a good leader and manager? It is of my belief that the answer to that question is yes. As we have looked at the differences between leadership and management, there also times where these two roles overlap and often are facilitated by the same individual. I look at the role of a procurement manager, that position is charged with the execution of a procurement code written by administrators. This position is also charged with executing the initiatives and directives that come down from administrators, many of which they played no part in developing. This position also needs to inspire and build trust with their staff, and many times

5 Fundamentals of Leadership and Management 5 they are responsible for creating a vision or identity of a procurement division. As one can see, you cannot just dump these responsibilities into a management or leadership bucket, the line between the two is blurry at best. The problem is that theory and literature frame these two roles into nice organized silos that do not allow for cross-contamination, and this just is not true. (Thus, the boundary between leadership becomes blurred. The literature simply tends to frame the functions of management with the boundaries identified by the scientific management tradition; however, it is difficult to deny that there are overlapping functions between leadership and management (McCue, Pitzer 47). Practical execution in the public procurement realm requires a manager to have the traits of both a good manager and a good leader for a department to succeed. In conclusion, it is evident to see that there are vast differences between a leader and manager. The skills are learned in very different ways, the roles have very different functions, and at the same time, both roles overlap within successful organizations. As I sat through the training class and listened to the ideas and theories being presented by Mrs. Sletten, we discussed in depth the need in today s environment to be both managers and leaders. If you look at some of the great companies such as Google, they are on the forefront of this initiative and spending the time and resources to provide their managers with leadership training. It is my firm belief that all industries will continue to blur the lines between management and leadership to strengthen those organizations.

6 Fundamentals of Leadership and Management 6 Works Cited McCue, Clifford & Pitzer, Jack. Fundamentals of Leadership and Management in Public Procurement. United States of America: National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, Book.