| We all know competent leadership means more than tasking 'to do's'. Tasking, of course, isn't leading, and it may not even be managing, but for our purposes, we'll call it 'management'. Management generally leads to an assessment of outcomes: “acceptable” or “unfavorable;” “compliant” or “noncompliant.” The best possible outcome in this scenario is the delivery of the requested action.
Simply “getting the job done” doesn't create excellence. The world’s greatest leaders all intuitively understand that the key to great leadership is not demanding compliance, but crafting an environment that acknowledges the complex relationship to our humanness, aspirations, identity, and desire for community. Look at Cynthia Marshall of the Mavs and Satya Nadella over at Microsoft.
(Disclosure: We worked for Cynt when she was at AT&T, and Gapingvoid has had a long-term relationship with MS) These leaders are cultural architects. Culture is a management system. Most managers focus on KPIs and measurement; making sure people hit their numbers. These are important and valid objectives. Leaders who use culture as a management system, however, focus on designing meaning, which is a fundamental building block of culture and the key to influence and impact. Great leaders focus on shaping beliefs and mindsets, articulating principles that lead to clarity, and inspiring and encouraging people to think beyond the task at hand - this is the roadmap to greatness. Designing culture is designing influence because it fundamentally impacts how people think about work, their connection to the organization’s purpose, and their identity. The old way of thinking was that good cultures make happier employees who score higher on engagement surveys. The world has moved way past that, and measuring ‘engagement’ isn’t even the point. It’s crafting environments where people feel valued and empowered to get meaningful work done, and culture is the vehicle for getting there. | 
