By Lisa Martin & Betsy Jordyn

Two days after being launched on April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 had a problem. An explosion crippled the space craft, leading to life-threatening hardships caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, lack of water and breakdowns in the carbon-dioxide removal system. For four days, the whole world watched as Gene Kranz, the NASA Flight Director, led the team that worked day and night to rescue the astronauts on board Apollo 13. It was his leadership that transformed the crisis into NASA’s finest hour and “successful failure,” when the astronauts returned safely home.

The true hero of that unique moment in space flight history was Kranz, the manager with the right stuff who pushed his talented team of engineers and other technical experts to do what they hadn’t done before. He got them to solve unsolvable problems, such as putting a square in a round hole and running a spaceship off with same amount of power that normally would be used to run a vacuum cleaner. In essence, Kranz was a Rising Manager.

What is a Rising Manager?

A Rising Manager is a manager who is simply the best. Rising managers stand out from their peers in the following ways: Know How: Rising Managers possess superior knowledge concerning both their field of expertise and the operation they are supervising. In this case, Kranz was a trained pilot and engineer, so he knew all the intricacies that were involved with successful space missions.

Know Who: Rising Managers understand and have a deep appreciation for the talent that report to them. They look for the best of the best. Not only are they unafraid to hire those who have specialized talent that they themselves don’t have, they also seek out such people. They take to the time to understand the personal and professional ambitions of their direct reports and treat them as individuals.

Know How to Get it Done: Rising Managers get results, but not because they do the work themselves. They know how to apply the talent on their team to succeed at the tasks at hand. They know how to lead the team to adapt to changing circumstances, so the goal is never lost sight of and thus is achieved. For example, a basketball coach like Stan Van Gundy of the Orlando Magic knows he has a powerhouse in Dwight Howard and builds his team and directs their plays around that talent. And he knows how to guide his team real-time in response to what the opposing team does, so they never take “their eyes off the ball” or the goal, which is to win the game.

In short, Rising Managers are able to balance both tasks and people in order to achieve consistent results. They manage tasks…and people. They maintain a simultaneous focus on the hardware (processes, tools, administration) and software (the human element of individual talent). “Rising Manager” isn’t simply a fancy term for a leader in that endless debate about manager vs. leadership. A Rising Manager is a manager who has the right stuff and who is the best of the best.

Not Everyone is a Leader…Some are Managers

For almost 20 years, business experts have been working hard at making the case that “everyone is a leader.” Unfortunately, this “leader” labeling blurs the distinction between manager and executive competencies. The challenge with this line of thinking is that it encourages organizations to create environments in which the focus is on making everyone a leader, although everyone clearly is not. Whether direct or indirect, this focus on leadership diminishes the significance of the manager role and its unique contribution to ensuring that the organization’s work gets done and its goals are achieved. It also sets up only one acceptable career path for Rising Stars, that of executive.

In this “everyone is a leader” paradigm, the executive role is viewed as the most strategic, desired and rewarded…while the manager role is often seen as second-class leader. But the reality is there are different roles in organizations because there is a need for different roles. There are individual contributors, managers and executives. Each position is valuable and integral to the success of the organization. However, these roles are not the same…nor should they be.

Executives are those who have a unique ability to see a better future for the organization and must be at the helm to lead the organization towards that better future. Managers are those individuals who work on the ground floor, so to speak, leading the teams who get it done.

Organizations need managers. Being a manager is a viable career goal and an essential role in an organization. Managers do not need to be taught also-ran leadership competencies. Rather, they should be taught how to become the best managers, how to focus on managing tasks and people to deliver consistent results. Their contribution to the organization needs to be both celebrated and rewarded.

The Gallup Organization identified the quality of a group or team manager as the number-one factor most dramatically affecting employee engagement. A Rising Manager can make a significant difference in an organization’s ability to retain Rising Stars. Rising Managers embrace the power of Rising Stars, recognizing their individual strengths and talents and guiding them to maximize those talents. They ensure that Rising Stars are given opportunities to grow and better serve the organization. Rising Managers foster an upward spiral towards increasingly better performance.

Executives Need Managers and Managers Need Executives

Rising Managers need Rising Executives to be great. Rising Executives provide the target at which Rising Managers aim. Rising Executives provide the “crazy” visions that Rising Managers implement. And, of course, Rising Executives need Rising Managers. They cannot achieve stellar results for their organization without them.

The Walt and Roy Disney partnership was a perfect example of how executive and management gifts can work together to maximize the success of an organization. Walt Disney, as we all know, was a visionary. He envisioned full-length, animated movies before they ever existed. He saw a resort destination in the middle of Central Florida swamp land and orange groves. In other words, he was a Rising Executive. But he was a horrible manager. Enter his brother Roy, who was a perfect complement to Walt. Roy brought his knowledge of structure, finance and people to the table, and his managerial gifts were equally responsible for Walt’s vision becoming a reality and for the Disney brand being what it is today.   The Top Line

Organizations need to make it clear that all employees are influencers, and that all employees must take personal responsibility for themselves and their jobs. However, something else that needs to be made clear is that everyone is not a leader and excellent managers are equally as important as executives to an organization. In other words, being called a “manager” isn’t being labeled a second-class leader. Management is also a gift, and the position of management needs to be elevated to its rightful place, so that everyone understands that those who have the gift of management are certainly no less significant than those who have the gift of executive leadership.

Too often, the contributions of these Rising Managers are missed and their bright lights are not seen. Apollo 13 would not have become a “successful failure” if Gene Kranz had not embodied the posture that “failure is not an option” and driven his team to share that same posture and get the job done in a spectacular way.

You want to achieve stellar results? Your Rising Managers with the right stuff will help you do exactly that.

© Copyright 2011. Lisa Martin and Betsy Jordyn. All rights reserved.