We can split Top Managers of all kinds into one of two categories, especially if we want to make a strong point. And today, managers shall be divided between Generals and Assistants. Why both need each other to succeed must be evident, especially in our time and age.
Generals have a big plan, coming with huge targets. They impose strict timeframes, demand the best, and reward accordingly. They also feel entitled to communicate their orders in a (more or less) aggressive manner, do not make as many friends as they could, and remain misunderstood to a greater or lesser degree.
Assistants focus on everyday tasks, set small targets as they monitor progress, support and encourage, assist future champions in their shortcomings, and make sure not to overpraise once the team starts winning. They are masters of diplomacy, everybody likes them, and their ideas are crystal clear to everyone.
As a result, the General will turn to the Assistant in moments of multitasking, pressure, and resistance, either for facilitation or advice. The Assistant will do the same when his ideas and methods require the final verification from authority. The rest of the time, they continue to work in parallel fashion but also distinctly.
Both these roles would command equal respect in an ideal world, but we live in this world. We live in hierarchical social and professional structures where the Distinguished professor and researcher stands higher than his post-doc assistants, the Chief Conductor higher than the Assistant conductor, the head coach higher than the assistant coach, and the President higher than the Vice President.
Recognizing that fact, executives detect the appropriate path to success as initially serving in an executive-Assistant-role, then hopefully moving up to occupy the big chair. And it is wrong. Or, to be more precise, it can happen and lead to success once you avoid becoming the greatest ever as an assistant! It is no accident that some of the great leaders in history did not serve their purpose from a lower rank first. And those assistants who proved themselves invaluable assets to the General, rarely reached a similar level of top performance once they got the big job. Of course, there are exceptions.
Such exceptions manage to do a remarkable job as assistants for a certain period and then move on with their careers by seeking, auditioning, requesting, demanding, or getting awarded one thing: Promotion.
Stay as an assistant for too long, and you become exactly that. It is not a bad thing, although now it is not a role anymore. It is who you are. Daily habits, though processes, modes of communication, and that insane attention to detail, so appreciated by the General, become a problem when you become the captain.
Co-doing things, especially next to great masters/mentors is the greatest school one can hope to attend. Someday though, we all must graduate. Become too great, famous, respected, as a distinguished Assistant, and you might as well stay there forever. Why change roles when you are the best in the world?
Assistants serve, maintain, and develop structures. Through mechanisms, they seek the final victory. Leaders serve, maintain, and feed the desire for victory. The mechanism will be found, one way or another. They will choose one, and they will go for it.
I believe it was Eisenhauer who said: ‘before battle, plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.’ No matter how pedantic an assistant is, there will always be something he missed. Generals do not win because they find that something. They win because their actions disregarded it.
And what if you landed the big job anyway, after years and years as an assistant? You have two options: Either find such exceptional assistants as you were and focus on the grand issues or help your organization appoint a great general that you can assist.
(Inspired by and dedicated to a certain basketball coach.)