Are you a manager or a leader?
There is a profound difference between management and leadership, and both are important. Both are necessary to keep your business thriving.
“To manage” means “to bring about, to accomplish, to have charge of or responsibility for, to conduct.”
“Leading” is “influencing, guiding in direction, course, action, opinion.”
In your daily work, you sometimes have to manage, and sometimes you are called upon to lead. The distinction is crucial.
Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right things.
The difference may be summarized as activities of vision and judgment—effectiveness—versus activities of mastering routines—efficiency. The chart below indicates key words that further make the distinction between the two functions:
Leaders, Not Managers…
To survive in this century we are going to need a new generation of leaders—leaders, not managers. The distinction is an important one.
Given the nature and constancy of change and the challenges we face, the key to making the right choices will come from understanding and embodying the leadership qualities necessary to succeed in an increasingly volatile and mercurial global environment. Leaders conquer the context—the turbulent, ambiguous surroundings that sometimes seem to conspire against us and will surely suffocate us if we let them—while managers surrender to it. There is a profound difference—a chasm—between leaders and managers.
Do you “conquer the context”? Do you even know what specific barriers or chaos make your context challenging? Do you have a strategy for dealing with each of those challenges?
Chart of Distinctions between Manager and Leader
There is a profound difference between management and leadership, and both are important. As we said, both leaders and managers are necessary. The chart below indicates key words that further make the distinction between the two functions:
| Function of Managers | Function of Leaders | |
| The manager administers. | The leader innovates. | |
| The manager is a copy. | The leader is an original. | |
| The manager maintains. | The leader develops. | |
| The manager accepts reality. | The leader investigates it. | |
| The manager focuses on systems and structure. | The leader focuses on people. | |
| The manager relies on control. | The leader inspires trust. | |
| The manager has a short-range view. | The leader has a long-range perspective. | |
| The manager asks how and when. | The leader asks what and why. | |
| The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line. | The leader has his or her eye on the horizon. | |
| The manager imitates. | The leader originates. | |
| The manager accepts the status quo. | The leader challenges it. | |
| The manager is the classic good soldier. | The leader is his or her own person. | |
| The manager does things right. | The leader does the right thing. |
- Leadership is different from management
- Leadership is not mystical or mysterious.
- Nor is leadership better than management or a replacement of it.
- Both are needed.
- Leadership and Management are two distinctive and complementary systems of action.
- Each has its own function.
- Smart companies value both and so should you.
Think about the people on your team. Which people are managers, and which are leaders? You can’t always tell just by looking at their job title or job description. Leadership is really about the way you approach what you do.
Who is someone who leads well? Who is someone who taught you what it means to lead?
Have you ever simply managed when you should have stepped up to lead instead? What keeps you from leading when that’s what is necessary?
