Leadership and management are two very different things, but people often mistake them for one thing.
Leadership is about vision and having followers that willingly execute that vision– while management is more about the administration side of things.
The difference between management and leadership can be broken down into this: managers have subordinates; leaders have followers.
Let’s explain it further!
Leaders Inspire
This is perhaps the most glaring difference. Leadership is all about inspiring those around you. On the other hand, management is all about planning.
A leader has that charisma that encourages people to follow them. They’re inspiring, and they often give their followers praise to get them going. Managers make plans, and it’s not too far off to say they’ll work to find faults in their subordinates’ work.
See, leaders are often visionaries. In their minds, they have a picture of what they want to do, and in a work environment, a leader has a vision for how they want to improve the company. People trust that vision, trust this person, and work with them to turn it into reality.
Good to Great
by Jim Collins
⏱ 13 minutes reading time
🎧 Audio version available
Managers Plan
In an organization, a manager is responsible for carrying out duties such as organizing and controlling the people around them. But there’s one last duty we can add to the list. Leading.
That’s right, so there’s a part where leadership and management overlap. A manager can be a leader, but the thing is– that rarely happens.
To be an adequate leader, a manager must follow the leadership part of a manager’s responsibilities. This means they have to be remarkable communicators, motivators, guides, and inspirations. A leader encourages their employees to be more productive. And it’s a win all around.
However, unfortunately, not all managers have leadership skills. We can even go as far as saying they have foul leadership skills, and their employees only end up following their orders because it’s in the job description, not out of admiration or respect for that person.
A manager’s goal is to meet deadlines and their organizational objectives with little allowance for disruptions. At the end of the day, a manager is held accountable for their and their employees’ actions.
Managers Have the Authority to Discipline. Leaders Don’t
A significant difference between manager and leader is that managers have the authority to discipline their employees and hire, fire, promote, and reward them.
Here begs the question: well, what do leaders do? If they’re not hiring, firing, or promoting others, what are their duties?
Most people don’t realize that leaders don’t have to hold a corporate title or a management position. Leaders don’t have to have authority in an organization technically. They can be anyone.
A leader is followed because people want to follow them. Their personality is appealing. Their behavior is likable, and their beliefs are ideal. And unlike a manager, leaders are personally invested in tasks and the people around them.
They care about the success of their followers, even if it goes beyond the immediate organization goal.
Leaders Don’t Have a Formal Power
There’s not a piece of paper that declares someone as a good leader. Not always. A leader and a good leader at that are an intangible title given to a leader based on their ability to inspire.
This takes us back to when we said managers have subordinates while leaders have followers. A subordinate or an employee can’t just choose not to follow their manager. They’ll be fired. But leaders can lose followers just as quickly as they gained them.
Leadership Skills
What differentiates between the two are their traits and skills. Someone with good leadership skills welcomes change and creativity. They’re adaptive, and most and foremost, they’re visionaries.
Here’s a list of skills that will rule out any doubt that a leader and a manager are the same.
Skill #1: they have remarkable communication skills. Leaders actively listen to their followers.
Skill #2: They have positive attitudes. An inspiring leader knows how important morale is, so they always try to keep a positive attitude.
Skill #3: They’re okay with feedback. Many people aren’t willing to take the risk of offering feedback to their managers, but leaders are likely more open to it. They have that they have to listen to others and take their opinions seriously.
Skill #4: Skill number four is related to creativity. There’s often not much room for creativity in a stifling work environment, but under the hand of a worthy leader, they encourage creativity and are more likely to take a chance.
Skill #5: they’re motivators: They know that the key to getting followers and getting them to do what they want is to motivate and inspire them.
Then we have an overlap between leadership and management. Here’s where leaders come out on top. Someone with good leadership has skills that include responsibility for managing.
Management Skills
To further put things in perspective, here are the skills a manager is supposed to have. In this day and age, a manager should have skills beyond human sources. They’re supposed to have technical skills– as in the ability to use technology and techniques to aid their work, such as software and operating machines.
Planning is a big, hulking skill that is the major part of being a manager. Planning involves organizing activities and tasks while meeting guidelines and dealing with limited sources, time, money, and labor-wise.
Then we have arguably what’s more important, and it’s communication skills. Having adequate communication skills is beyond necessary. Managers can communicate with their team to clarify their objective, and they should also be receptive to others’ communication attempts.
Lastly, we have problem-solving. Managers must have the ability to tackle problems that may arise.
A Leader Innovates. A Manager Organizes
This next point may just set the difference once and for all.
The near-textbook definition for a manager is “someone who establishes appropriate targets and yardsticks, and analyzes, appraises and intercepts performance.”
A manager’s strategy depends on control and authority, whereas a leader depends on trust. Leaders encourage people to do their best at a pace that’s comfortable for everyone.
Meanwhile, it’s in the job description for managers to establish control over subordinates and push them to develop their assets in the most efficient way possible.
Related: Why Most Business Managers Have No Idea How to Run a Company
“Why” and “What” vs. “When” and “How.”
Managers have to abide by deadlines from the higher-ups. Their job is to delegate tasks and appoint the appropriate employees with the right skill sets to do said tasks. But at the end of the day, the most frequent questions a manager will ask are “when” and “how.”
On the other hand, let’s say a problem has impacted the workplace. A leader will ask, “what did we learn from this mistake?” Or “why and where did we go wrong.”
Managers are required– even by their job description– to assess failures. Their job is to make sure objectives are met.
Managers Accept the Status Quo. Leaders Don’t.
A leader has the best interest of their followers and vision in mind. And to do that, they may question and challenge authority.
Managers are prone to accepting the status quo and don’t try to make changes.
Examples of a leader vs. manager
When you picture a leader, who comes to mind? Let us show you some of the perfect examples of excellent leaders.
Take Mahatma Gandhi, for example. He was the visionary leader of the Indian independence movement. He more than challenged the status quo. He did it peacefully and used nonviolent civil disobedience to get what he wanted, which was the best for his people.
And India is a fairly large country. That he could gain a diverse base of followers and motivate them to follow one cause proves what a good leader can do.
Martin Luther King Jr. was an innovative leader. He wanted to address the criminal and social injustice he faced in the U.S., And he rallied people to his cause as a Southern minister to powerfully get his point across.
Now, here are some examples of managers.
We said that a manager doesn’t necessarily innovate or inspire, but they get work done in the most efficient way possible. And who better to call the ideal example of a manager than the man who invented the 5-day work week that we know today?
Henry Ford, not only did he popularize the 9 to 5 workday and the 5-week work at a time when the workday was 10-16 hours, but he also increased the efficiency of production in methods that were unheard of during his time.
Also, he lowered the cost of materials used and made the final product, his Ford cars, available at affordable prices for the public.
So, in the end, leadership and management aren’t the same thing. Not even in essence. But they do go hand in hand. They compliment each other, and any attempt to separate them is likely to damage those involved.
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