46 Leading with NLP
You pace others by meeting them first of all in their world.
You try to understand what matters to them, how they expe-
rience the world, without trying to change it. Because you
confirm what is true for them, you begin to build trust. Pac-
ing establishes the initial bridge. Once you have done that,
then you can lead them.
Pacing and Management
Management is the equivalent of pacing an organization.
Management aims to achieve consistent, orderly results in
the short to medium term, while controlling the present.
Leadership makes the future.
Management versus leadership is a hollow debate – orga-
nizations clearly need both. They need day-to-day stability
that management gives andthe innovation and renewal that
leadership promises. Weak management with weak leader-
ship will put a company out of business very quickly. Strong
management and weak leadership will keep a company
running for some time, but eventually it will fade, because it
will be adapted to the past. In more forgiving times, when
the pace of change was slower, a business could get by for
years like this, and many did. But it is not possible now. This
doesn’t mean that all managers have to turn into leaders,
but it does means that people have to take on a leadership as
well as a managerial function.
Good leadership and poor management, on the other
hand, is an exciting roller-coaster ride, but it doesn’t usually
last long. Bursting with vision, a business will flare, flourish
and fade in a short space of time. Business needs a good
balance of management and leadership to prosper and keep
prospering.
We need to distinguish between the role of manager and
the activity of management. ‘Manager’ is a job title. A person
with such a title can lead as well as manage. Organizations
have not got around to establishing ‘leader’ as a job title
in its own right (except in an informal and ironic way), but
we do have team leaders, so the role and activity is becoming
recognized.