Michael Connellan, head of external affairs, JDRF Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk

1. How to be a leader, not just a
manager: what does the
evidence teach us?

2. Hi folks
I’m Michael Connellan
• UK Head of External Affairs at the type 1 diabetes charity JDRF
• Managing a talented multi-tier team of skilled communicators
• 15 years of line management experience - 5 in journalism, 10
in charity sector
• Recently completed Cass Business School’s Outstanding
Leadership seminar series

3. Three things to know
• To get ahead in your communications career, you need
to be a leader as well as a manager
• There are distinct habits that distinguish exceptional
leaders from merely good leaders
• You can study these habits and adapt them into your
own leadership style

4. Do you have the right to study leadership?
• Clue.. yes!
• In fact, you have a responsibility. Because charity CEOs
want to lead leaders, not followers
• Your organisation needs you to be a leader, not just a
manager

5. What’s the difference between
management and leadership?
• As US President, Obama had to be a line manager…

6. As a line manager, he had to:
- Hire a team
- Establish and manage his plans
- Manage his budget
- Manage priorities and deadlines
- Build management processes and systems
- Make decisions

7. • But guiding others to success requires much more than
just management
• Obama had to lead. We have to lead.
• Where did Obama’s management end and the
leadership begin?

8. • If you think of a boss that inspires you…
• How do they behave as a leader as well as a mere
manager?

9. Let’s ask ourselves…
• What are the differences between management and
leadership?
• How does management and leadership compliment
each other?
• “Management is the doing. Leadership is the being”
• “Manage work. But lead people”

10. Management and leadership...
• They’re both vital. But they’re different
Adapted from the Cass Business School’s summary of the Work Foundation’s “Exceeding Expectation: the principles of outstanding leadership”.
Management Leadership
Setting + measuring goals
Establishing processes, systems
Handling, overseeing
Assessing competencies
Negotiating
Making decisions
Inspiring, personifying
Creating time and space
Developing, coaching
Understanding motivations
Listening
Winning buy-in for decisions

11. Evidence on habits of exceptional leaders
• The Work Foundation’s study “Exceeding Expectation: the principles
of outstanding leadership”…
• …involved more than 250 meetings with more than 70 managers
across different sectors
• …compared the habits of managers rated merely ‘good’ by
colleagues versus managers rated as ‘outstanding’
• …what emerged was the following evidence on their leadership
habits…

12. The highest-rated leaders…
• Don’t teach. Instead, they coach
• What’s the difference?
• Teaching = telling them how to do it
• Coaching = providing guidance and support for someone to
find their own solution
• “Never make a decision that they can make themselves”

13. The highest-rated leaders…
• Know that talk IS work (and that meetings are
awesome!)
• So they provide time and space to their team and their
colleagues…
• … building their confidence and their strengths

14. The highest-rated leaders
• Make the most of every opportunity to…
• Get to know their people
• Get to know what motivates them
• Gauge mood/atmosphere within a team and an
organisation
• Support a collaborative culture

15. The highest-rated leaders…
• Understand their symbolic role as leader
• What does this mean?

16. Let’s talk
• To develop your own leadership habits, what do you
intend to:
■ Continue?
■ Stop?
■ Start doing?
■ What’ll get in the way of you taking action?
■ What can you do to avoid that happening?

17. What does great leadership look like for
us comms people specifically?
• The highest-rated leaders…
• Think hard about risk and trust when communicating
internally
• What does this mean?

18. The communications pyramid

19. • When should you move up the Communications
Pyramid?
• When should you NOT? (Leadership involves sacrifice
after all)

20. The highest-rated leaders…
• Think hard about the level of formality and structure
when they communicate internally
• What does this look like?

21. The Leadership Communication Grid

22. Let’s talk
• Think about that big challenging project you’re working
on…
• How could you demonstrate leadership by thinking hard
about risk and trust…
• And… thinking hard about the level of formality and
structure
• … in the internal comms around the project?

23. We’ve explored…
• Some of the differences between leadership and
management
• Some of the distinct habits that distinguish exceptional
leaders from merely good leaders

24. How can you keep adopting leadership habits?
• Plan meetings with yourself to study leadership. Study the
Work Foundation’s evidence
• Read up… Harvard Business Review blogs are a great source
• Declare to colleagues that you’re exploring leadership
• Get on the Outstanding Leadership course at Cass
• Follow me and stay in touch:
@MikeConnellan
linkedin.com/in/michaelconnellan/

25. Getting ahead in your
comms career
20 June 2019
London
#CommsCareer

26. Visit the CharityComms website to view
slides from past events, see what events
we have coming up and to check out
what else we do:
www.charitycomms.org.uk