People Oriented vs Task Oriented
20 January, 2023

Engineering Manager at Jeavio
As a Lead or Manager, one could naturally incline more towards being people oriented or task oriented. Which is better? Do you know which side you lean more towards?
⚡Sounds clichéd but it is Gold: Leadership is not about building things (product/service/company) using people. It is about building people 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 building things.
💯End of the day, let us accept the fact that 'building things' is what pays in today's world. It could be building a product or customer satisfaction or revenue through sales or so on & so forth. So, building things is every organization's Goal.
👎However, if we build things by using people, then we will never have a sustainable organization. And the one that tries to do it will never be a Leader. And in my personal yet humble opinion, it is plain wrong to do so.
🎯A Leader has to build people 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 building things. And hence a Leader has to be 𝐁𝐎𝐓𝐇 people oriented & task oriented. Most of us, naturally incline more towards one of them.
🪜Here are the steps to become good at being both people oriented & task oriented:
1️⃣ Identify where you are today. An amazing management tool I learnt about is ❝Blake & Mouton Managerial Grid❞ (Google 'Blake Mouton managerial grid leadership self assessment questionnaire'). Using this, find your "People" score & "Task" score (on a scale of 0 to 9) and find your management style as well (Country Cub Leader, Team Leader, Authoritarian Leader, etc...).
2️⃣ Ideally one should have a score of (9, 9) (People, Task). At the least, a score of (6,6) or above, so that one can be a "Team Leader". But, now that you know your current score - let's say (6, 4) - you could either focus on improving the lower score among the two while still maintaining the other score or you could focus on improving both the scores together.
3️⃣ One excellent book that helps in improving your People oriented-ness & Task oriented-ness is ❝Bankable Leadership❞ by Dr. Tasha Eurich. Amazing book with actionable insights on how to improve on both People & Task.
🙇When I am around experienced Leaders who are good at both, I keep observing how they take care of their people & empower them along with accomplishing task oriented goals. It is interesting & a great learning experience to observe how good Leaders achieve this.
Have you tried the questionnaire and found your People, Task score & management style yet?
Discover Plato
Scale your coaching effort for your engineering and product teams
Develop yourself to become a stronger engineering / product leader
Related stories
21 March
A short overview of a very effective leadership assessment by Jack Welch, that is easily transferred to other industries is the 4Es of leadership – energy, energize, edge, and execution.

Ramesh Dewangan
CEO at Quantum Vision Consulting
21 March
Based on an awesome book titled "Deep Work" by Cal Newport we provide provide a brief overview of the Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

Ramesh Dewangan
CEO at Quantum Vision Consulting
21 March
Is it possible to be too empathetic? If you overdo it, it can be an energy sucker.

Melanie Zens
Delivery & Operations / Digital Transformation / Innovation at Marais Consulting Inc
20 March
Learn about 10 rules from the wisdom of these long-living residents from Ogimi, a small village in Okinawa, Japan. You could interpret the rules as the lifestyle habits that enable the senior residents of Ogami to live long and enjoy their ikigai.

Ramesh Dewangan
CEO at Quantum Vision Consulting
7 March
3 ways leaders can cultivate relationships that lead to better products.

Guy Jenkins
SVP Global Customer Experience at Salesforce