Are You an Administrator, Manager or Leader? (Management, Leadership & Coaching No. 5)

My very first winter job was working at a movie theater.

I sold tickets, bagged the popcorn and worked in the concession stand.

The people I worked with gave me my first glance at the different aspects of running a business.

My supervisor had the role of administrator.

He was all about 'The Rules.'

He made sure we only gave the children's price to those under the age of 12.

That was always a hard call for me when mom or dad would make the 'teenage-looking' child wait by the door as they stepped up to the cashier window - I always wondered what kind of lesson parents were teaching their children about honesty when the parent lied about the age of the child to get a lower price.

My boss was all about the rules and would rudely question the parent when he saw the size of the person who had a 'children's ticket.'

Clearly he missed the lesson about creating a positive guest experience for families.

He was just more interested in making sure everyone went by 'The Rules.'

The owner of the theater was in charge of the next area of responsibility.

He was all about 'Management.'

He focused on efficiency.

His office was upstairs next to the projection booth and sporadically he would 'run' downstairs to see if we were doing our job.

He liked to take the stairs 2 at a time going up and down so we always knew when he was coming.

We would hear the 'Thud, Thud, Thud' when he hit the first set of stairs.

That was our cue to do a once over of his pet peeves.

He hated it if we left the sliding top door of the freezer open for more than a second even if we were serving multiple guests.

We heard about it if we overestimated the size of the crowd for each show and popped too much popcorn.

On those occasions we would get a lecture about how expensive the popcorn, oil, and electricity was to make the popcorn.

I wonder how different it might have been if someone in the company had been a true leader who could have shared the vision of what a positive movie experience should be like for our guests.

You see I was treated like an hourly employee, someone who came in, worked my shift and went home.

I was never really invited to be part of the company.

I wonder how different it would have been if someone would have helped me learn the intricacies of creating a positive movie experience.

I would like to think that would have inspired me to do a better job.

But in reality, I showed up, sold the tickets, hoped I estimated the right amount of popcorn and prayed I didn't hear the 'Thud, Thud, Thud' coming to check on me.

A true leader energizes their staff to perform.

All too often the person in charge sucks every ounce of inspiration out of an employee because they focus on the wrong things. Either they are an administrator, or a manager, but rarely a leader.

Where do you expend your energies?

Are you an administrator who focuses on the rules and procedures?

Are you a manager who is primarily concerned about efficiency and results?

Or are you a leader who shares the vision of your department and organization with every employee and creates an atmosphere where staff is excited and motivated to help you make that dream come to fruition?