The Leader, the Manager and the Horse

By Paul Gadbois

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink”. This phrase is thought to be the oldest English proverb that is still in regular use today. According to phrases.org.uk, this saying was recorded as early as 1175 in Old English Homilies:

"Hwa is thet mei thet hors wettrien the him self nule drinken” – Which translated means "who can give water to the horse that will not drink of its own accord?”

At the surface, this proverb may appear to be nothing more than a simple truth with very little value beyond its amusing qualities. However, at the very core of its meaning there is an object lesson that if applied to modern day business management practices, may fundamentally change the way managers execute their roles within their organizations. Let's take a closer look at this object lesson and see how it has the potential to shift conventional wisdom on management practices towards a management philosophy that is more natural, practical and effective.

Ready?

If the simple truth is "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink”, then the question that begs to be asked by the Manager is "why can't I make the horse drink?” The answer to this question is found in the above translation. You cannot make the horse drink because it will only drink "of its own accord”. It will only drink if and when it is thirsty and ready to quench that thirst; no sooner, no later.

This brings us to the relationship between the Leader, the Manager and the Horse. It's within this relationship that we will see the application of the object lesson and experience the potential shift in management practices.

Let's start with the Horse. As we mentioned above, the horse will only drink "of its own accord”. As a manager, you cannot make the horse drink. When it comes to the execution of its responsibility to drink, the horse will always manage its own actions.

Object Lesson Part A: Peoples actions cannot be managed by a manager. Individuals are the only ones that can manage their actions. Everything a person does or doesn't do is based on the management disciplines that they apply to their own behaviors. So in the case of the horse, it will manage whether to drink or not drink. With that in mind, one shift in conventional wisdom should be that every employee is expected to function as a manager. Although they are only managing their own behavior, they must in fact learn to apply solid management practices (Time Management, Quality Management, Capacity Planning, etc…) to their daily activities.

Notice that in the below diagram, the horse is expected to manage its own behavior and therefore assumes the functional role of a (self) manager.

Leader  Manager <----Horse Manages---- Horse

With that in mind, a follow-up question that we should be asking ourselves is, "As a manager, if I cannot make the horse drink, and if I am not supposed to be managing my people, then what is my role in the business management process? What should I be doing?” Once again the answer is found in the proverb. "You can lead a horse to water”!

Object Lesson Part B: Although people (and horses) cannot be managed, they can and should be lead. In our proverb, the manager was able to "lead the horse to water”. In leading the horse, the manager may even go so far as to encourage the horse to drink the water. Assuming the horse is Mr. Ed and it understands human speak, the manager also may set some expectations about how much water the horse should drink and by what time of the day the water should be consumed. If necessary, the manager may also provide information about the consequences of not completing the stated goals and objectives. These are all reasonable activities for a leader to engage in.

So the role of a manager is not to manage, but to lead their people towards success. Good leaders consistently perform the following activities:

· Provides clear and concise goals, objectives, and directions.

· Provides regular feedback on performance levels

· Helps their people develop good personal management skills (Time Management, Quality Management, Capacity Planning, etc…)

· Holds their people accountable for their actions (Good and Bad)

· Etc…

So in our relationship between the Leader the Manager and the Horse, the Manager is the person that fills the role of leader.

Leader <----Manager Leads---- Manager  Horse

Notice below that in both cases, the relationship between the Leader, the Manager, and the Horse has a shift to the left in order to align with the correct function that each role should be executing. The Horse functions as a manager, and the Manager functions as a Leader. This is in fact, the paradigm shift in conventional management practices that was mentioned earlier in this paper.

Leader <-------- Manager <-------- Horse 

In conclusion, when Managers attempt to manage their people, they often times struggle as managers, and in turn their people also struggle as employees. In this traditional management/employee dynamic, the roles are not properly aligned with the natural functions that each person should be performing, which results in diminished ability to achieve success.

However, when Managers lead their people and empower their people to become self-managed individuals, the natural alignment of role to person provides a greater potential for the entire team to achieve an improved level of success.

Let the Manager lead and let the Horse manage.