What is the difference between leadership and management?
Management refers to controlling a group of people or a set of entities to accomplish a set goal. Leadership is the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, persuade and enable others to contribute towards organizational success. Power and control tend to define managers; influence, inspiration, willingness define leaders. Whereas a manager has to push a team forward, a leader pulls them towards a goal. So, which is better?
While leadership refers to motivating everyone with visions and belief systems about your company, management means administering work and ensuring daily activities are done at their normal pace. Although they are often confused in real life, they do not refer to the same thing but are closely linked and complementary. Leaders and managers need to work together to keep the company moving forward.
To be successful, a company requires management to plan, organize, and coordinate activities and inspiring leaders. In the case of a small business owner, to be truly successful, they need not only to be a strong leader but also to manage their team towards their vision of success.
How Can Being a Leader Improve Morale, Productivity, and Decision-Making?
Being a leader has a significant impact on the overall success of a team. Effective leadership and morale energize productivity by boosting motivation and creating a positive work environment. When employees feel supported and empowered, they are more likely to make sound decisions and contribute to the overall success of the organization.
Tell me the difference between leadership and management?
Management is so often confused with leadership that many management structures receive the wrong labels. For example, a company could have “team leaders” who manage a shift or a development leader who manages processes. Differentiating between the two in terms of contrasting attributes is the easiest:
| Manager | Leader |
|---|---|
| Implements policies | Shares a vision |
| Has Subordinates | Has followers |
| Gives Direction | Asks questions |
| Holds authority | Is motivational |
| Tells you what | Shows you how |
| Has good ideas | Actions good ideas |
| Reacts to change | Creates change |
| Tries to be a hero | Makes Heroes |
| Exercises power | Develops power |
| Works on a fixed schedule | Sets objectives and milestones |
Leaders create diehard fanatics while managers maintain followers.
“Willing obedience always beats forced obedience” -Xenophon
Dillery, John. Xenophon and the History of His Times. London: Routledge. 1995.
Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Mandela – these names are synonymous with leadership. They announced to the world their vision, their dream, and it became a reality. Leaders look beyond immediate problems and develop a vision of how things should be, thus inspiring people to convert challenges into opportunities. Their vision became everyone’s vision, everyone’s dream, taking the idea beyond the individual into a collective mindset detached from the originator. These visions transcended and survived their deaths, becoming self-propelling and inevitable.
Are you a manager or a leader?
Most leaders lead subconsciously. It is something that they do without thinking, without obvious clues, while managers tend to exert visible control. While these two personalities tend to be distinct, most people switch between the two roles daily, depending on the circumstances. Here are three quick tests to determine which role you are in currently:
1. Value creation vs. value accounting:
Do you spend most of your time managing people?
Are you creating or counting value? Are you managing people, or are you inspiring people?
A leader focuses on value creation, and a manager accounts for activities that lead towards value. A manager controls systems and processes to ensure that tasks are completed and can reduce value through activities such as tying up resources with task-oriented feedback. They tend to play a finite game, where rules and outcomes are well defined. Leaders tend to develop the big picture and hand over the minutiae of the tasks to their colleagues, trusting that they will accomplish these. By relinquishing control over the details, they release more value for the company while allowing themselves to contribute towards the greater goal. They tend to play an infinite game.
2. The game of circles: influence vs power
How many people outside of your reporting hierarchy come to you for advice?
To be a leader, you need to have followers. To be a manager, you need subordinates. Leaders focus on circles of influence while managers create circles of power. Managers tend to work in silos, looking mainly after their associates, while leaders tend to be cross-cutters. They interact not just with their team, but members of other teams also seek them out.
3. Leading people vs forcing people.
Why do people do what you ask them to do?
A leader does not need to refer to a job title or a higher authority. They rely on other people being willing to follow them and do as asked. They achieve their goals by enabling people by giving them vision, motivation, belief, and self-determination. Managers rely on their positional power and control to achieve their goals.