What is the difference between management and leadership?

There are a lot of misconceptions and misinformation regarding leadership and management. Management has historically gotten a bad reputation, probably because there are so many people being promoted to management who are either not up to the task or haven’t been trained how to be a good manager.

Personally, I believe there are many great qualities a good manager can bring to the table and that the function is necessary in every organization. Managers can also learn leadership qualities that will make them better at working with people and more effective as leaders of their teams.

In this article we take a look at leadership and management and highlight the key differences.

What is leadership?

According to Kevin Cruse, the founder and CEO of LEADx, leadership is “a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others towards the achievement of a goal”. Leaders are big picture thinkers; they create and communicate a vision and then empower and inspire others to carry it out. Leaders also take initiative and invests a great effort to accomplish the company’s vision.

Leaders have followers. They have people who care about what they say and who will follow the direction that the leader points out. Leaders inspire people to action through passion and a deep belief in a cause.

Leadership is not necessarily tied to a position in the company hierarchy. It doesn’t really have anything to do with title or job description – you can be at the top of the organization and still not be a leader, or you can have no title but you have people who are following you, making you a leader.

Leaders are followed because of their personality, behavior, and beliefs. Leaders take interest in the success of their followers and work to enable their followers to reach their goals, personal or professional.

A leader does not necessarily have formal or tangible power, the leader’s power comes from their ability to continually inspire and motivate their followers. Leadership works on inspiration and trust among employees, those who want to stop following a leader can do so at any time. Leaders typically challenge the status quo, they are on a mission to change things for the better in visionary, agile, creative, and adaptive ways.

Effective leaders can create positive work environments that lead to trusting relationships. This typically results in high levels of employee engagement and reduced employee turnover rates. Effective leaders also inspire their followers to reach performance targets and realize organizational objectives.

What is management?

Management is about coordinating the efforts of employees to accomplish objectives. Management aims to improve efficiency and effectiveness, completing tasks within specific timelines, problem-solving and achieving goals and results.

Managers typically work closely with their teams on detailed tasks and activities, providing guidance, setting goals, and giving feedback. According to Julie Zhuo, author of The Making of a Manager, “A manager’s job is to build a team that works together, support members in reaching their career goals, and create processes to get work done smoothly and efficiently.”

Managers don’t have followers; they have subordinates or direct reports. Subordinates do what a manager tells them to do because it is written in their job descriptions and has been mandated by the company. They cannot choose to not obey their manager; they must obey their manager.

Functions of management include planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Managers can become leaders if they incorporate leadership responsibilities in their day-to-day work, including communicating good and bad news, providing inspiration and guidance, and encouraging employees to rise to a higher level of productivity. Unfortunately, not all managers can truly inspire their subordinates to become followers.

Unlike a leader, a manager’s duties are detailed in their job description and their efficiency and effectiveness will be measured through their key performance indicators (KPIs) and goals. Managers’ performance can also be measured through employee feedback and 360-degree evaluations.

What are the differences between leadership and management?

Asking, “Are all managers leaders?” is like asking whether all fruits are apples. Managers can be leaders and leaders can be managers, but not all managers will be leaders and not all leaders will make good managers. Both roles are necessary and both roles make a valuable contribution to the organization and it will be up to the aptitude, personality traits and ambitions of each manager to determine whether or not they can also become a leader.

Let’s look at the main differences between the two concepts:

Difference #1: Vision vs Execution

Leaders are visionaries. They dream up a vision for the future and then develop a strategy for getting there. They use their vision to inspire people to follow them and work hard to achieve the dream. Leaders focus on the “WHY” of things, not just what or how. When a leader has a compelling reason for why they want to do something and why they need you to help them, they inspire passion and commitment in their followers.

A manager works to make an organization function more effectively. Managers control processes, makes sure that operations run smoothly, that outputs are produced in time and on budget. They are more concerned with the “WHAT” and “HOW” of things. The changes implemented by a manager will be to improve what the team is already doing.

The roles of leaders and managers are correlated: a leader creates the vision and the manager transforms the vision into a reality.

Difference #2: People vs Processes

Leaders inspire and motivate, sharing a common goal and giving team members a sense of purpose. Having a sense of purpose improves job satisfaction and makes employees more productive and dedicated. An organization that has a great leader can significantly increase productivity and happiness at work.

Managers are focused on managing people, processes and things. They break down goals into tasks and organize these resources to achieve a desirable outcome. They implement decision making processes, allocate resources and tasks, promote, hire and fire employees in order to make the team better. A manager’s responsibility is to reach organizational goals, making sure tha the daily work of each employee in their team contributes to the overall company mission.

Difference #3: Status vs Position

Being a leader has nothing to do with titles. Leadership is not tied to a position, employees on any level of the organization can demonstrate leadership skills and cause change to happen. John Maxwell said “A great leader’s courage to fulfil his vision comes from passion, not position.” Leaders have followers, who follow because they choose to. Leaders use their influence to make things happen.

“Manager” is a title that pertains to a specific role on a specific organizational level. Managers have subordinates, people who report to them in the company hierarchy and they are in charge of these people and the results they produce. Managers use authority that they have been granted by their title in order to make things happen.

Difference #4: Aligning vs Organizing

Leaders are concerned with how to align and influence people, rather than how to assign work. They achieve alignment by assisting individuals in envisioning their function in a wider context and by considering the possibility for future growth that their efforts may give.

Managers achieve their goals by coordinating activities and organizing tactical processes. They break down long-term goals into smaller pieces of work and organize the available resources in order to reach the desired outcomes.

Difference #5: What and Why vs How and When

Leaders ask what and why, where managers ask how and when. Leaders often step back to understand what can be learned from a situation and why problems or issues occurred in the first place. They want to understand the causation or incidents in order to preempt them in future.

Managers are required to asses and finalize failures, they need to focus on how things need to be resolved and by when.

Difference #6: Quality vs Position

Leaders typically emerge as a result of their actions. You are a leader if you actin ways that inspires others to do their best.

Managers are first awarded their positions and then act in accordance with their job descriptions and responsibilities.