Dan McCarthy

Dan McCarthy is an expert in leadership and management development. For over 20 years Dan has helped thousands of leaders and aspiring leaders improve their leadership capabilities.

Dan is a leadership development speaker, consultant, and executive coach. He’s consulted with companies on how to develop their leaders, and coached leaders from around the world.

Dan is the Director of Executive Development Programs at the Paul College of Business and Economics, the University of New Hampshire (UNH). He is responsible for all administrative, fiscal, operational, and policy matters associated with the development, delivery, and marketing of Executive Development Programs at Paul College.

Prior to joining UNH in February of 2011, Dan was responsible for all aspects of supervisory, management and executive development, including succession planning at Paychex, Inc. Paychex was consistently named as a Fortune Magazine “Great Place to Work” a "Training Magazine top 125” training organization, and a Bersin “High Impact Learning Organization”.

Prior to Paychex, Dan was Director of Leadership Excellence and Culture Development for Digital and Film Imaging Systems at Eastman Kodak Company. He was responsible for talent management for approximately 150 executives worldwide, including succession planning, an executive talent exchange, and executive development programs.

He’s the author of the award winning leadership development blog “Great Leadership”, the Great Leadership Development and Succession Planning eBook, and an influential voice in social media. He has recently begun writing for About.com as their Management expert.

He’s a member of the SmartBrief on Workforce Advisory Board, the CMED Advisory Board, and was named one of the Top 10 Digital Influencers in Leadership for the last two years. He is a regular contributor to Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, RadioINK, a national publication for radio management, HRExecutive Online, Monster’s HR People, Human Resources IQ, SmartBrief on Leadership and Workforce, HR Republic, a leading HR publication in Asia, and other leading digital publications.

DISCLAIMER:

The opinions expressed on The Balance do not represent the University of New Hampshire.

Dan McCarthy makes every effort to offer accurate, common-sense, ethical leadership, management, and workplace advice both on this website, and linked to from this website, but he is not an attorney, and the content on the site, while authoritative, is not guaranteed for accuracy and legality, and is not to be construed as legal advice.

The site has a world-wide audience and employment laws and regulations vary from state to state and country to country, so the site cannot be definitive on all of them for your workplace. When in doubt, always seek legal counsel or assistance from State, Federal, or International governmental resources, to make certain your legal interpretation and decisions are correct. The information on this site is for guidance, ideas, and assistance only.

Dan has a Master’s Degree in Human Resource and Organizational Development and an undergraduate degree in Business Administration. He has completed executive development programs at the Darden School of Business and IMD.

Most of what Dan writes about is from his informal education: the Management School of Hard Knocks.

Dan McCarthy’s 10 Simple "Truths" about Management vs. Leadership:

1. Management and leadership are not the same. Not all leaders are managers and not all managers are leaders. You can be good at one and lousy at the other, or you can be good or bad at both.

2. *Managers plan and budget, organize and staff, control and solve problems, and produce predictability and order.

3. *Leaders establish direction, align people, motivate, inspire, and mentor, and produce change.

*Source: from John Kotter’s What Leaders Really Do, Harvard Business Review.

4. While leadership and management are different, they are complementary and equally important. One is not “gooder” than the other.

5. Organizations need great leadership and great management or they will crash and burn. To what degree of each depends on the degree of change needed.

6. Given the amount of change most organizations are facing, the need for leadership has increased while the need for management remains constant. Many, if not most organizations are facing a leadership shortage.

7. Neither management nor leadership are hereditary traits; they both need to be learned and developed over time. For most people, leadership tends to be harder and takes longer to develop.

8. While everyone has some potential to lead, some have more potential than others. Organizations need to cast a wide net to find these individuals and invest in their development.

9. Someone can be appointed a manager but you have to earn the title of leader. A manager can inherit or hire employees, while a leader has to “be elected” by followers to be their leader.

10. You can do management to manage, but you have to be a leader to lead. Management can be an 8-5 job, while leadership is transformational. There is no on and off switch.
 

You can email me at danmccarth@gmail.com.