What is the main difference between leadership and management? While many of you may think that these two terms mean the same thing, this is not the case. Moreover, leaders and managers can possess some very different skills and characteristics which we will cover later in this blog.
In this blog, you will also learn that proper communication is one of the main prerequisites for successful leadership and management.
💡Check out Top Leadership Skills and become the leader your employees need.
Now, let’s take a deep dive into the main differences between leadership and management.
How Leadership and Management are Different
Leadership and management are often considered to have overlapping functions. While this can be true, these two terms have different meanings and shouldn’t be used interchangeably. Both imply a unique set of functions, characteristics, and skills that share similarities.
However, they show prominent differences in some circumstances. For example, some managers do not practise leadership, while others lead without a managerial role.
A manager is generally someone who is selected or appointed within an organisation. In most cases, a manager is selected based on specific technical skills, knowledge, and expertise. On the contrary, the greatest leadership skill is to influence and inspire people.
In the workplace, it is important to have both great leaders and managers. Organisations need good leaders to achieve their mission and vision. They also need good managers to ensure that things are getting done and that their teams are aligned with the company’s goals.
Let’s now take a look at the 5 main differences between leadership and management.
Since the start of the pandemic, the role of leaders and managers in an organisation has become even more important than before. Remote work and hybrid work can make it harder to influence people, improve employee experience, and ensure higher engagement levels.
💡 Also lead about the 20 ways to engage with your remote employees!
Now let’s jump to the leadership vs. managers section!
Leaders Set the Vision, Managers Follow It
When it comes to setting and executing a company’s mission and vision, managers and leaders have different roles.
Leaders are visioners. Most of them have a clear vision of where they want their organisations to be in the future. However, they themselves are not the only ones responsible for making that vision come true.
Here, managers play a crucial role. While leaders may be responsible, through efficient leadership communication, to transfer the company’s mission, vision and goals to the entire organisation, managers are responsible for keeping employees aligned with the core company values and goals. However, 71% of employees believe that their leaders do not spend enough time communicating goals and plans.
Even though managers are the ones who can influence people to work towards the same objectives, many employees agree that their company doesn’t do a good job communicating the company’s goals. Moreover, employees want and expect to be informed about how their organisation is doing and where it is heading.
“I think of management as working with other people to make sure the goals an organization has articulated are executed,”
says HBS Dean Nitin Nohria in an interview for the online course Management Essentials.
“It’s the process of working with others to ensure the effective execution of a chosen set of goals. Leadership is about developing what the goals should be. It’s more about driving change.”
Moreover, by speaking openly about the company’s goals, opportunities, and challenges, leaders are the ones who can build trust in the workplace. They can foster a productive work environment where employees feel empowered to share their own ideas, needs and concerns. The more transparent leaders are, the healthier the work environment becomes.
💡 Learn more about the characteristics of a great leader.
Leaders Think Ideas, Managers Think Execution
While a managerial culture emphasises rationality and control, leaders are more about looking for opportunities for improvement on the organisational level. They do so by coming up with new ideas and driving the shift to a forward-thinking mindset. In other words, managers always look for answers to “how and when,” while leaders look for answers to “what and why.”
Therefore, the managers’ main responsibility is to fulfil their tasks based on the leader’s vision. Their main job is to ensure that people in different functions with different responsibilities operate efficiently, productively, and feel like they can share their voice.
They should always watch the bottom line by controlling employees and providing necessary information, processes, workflows and tools so that employees are enabled for success.
Managers relate to people according to the role they play in a decision-making process, while leaders, who are concerned with ideas, relate in more high-level but empathetic ways. The main difference is simply between a manager’s attention to how things get done and a leader’s attention to what should be done to achieve greater results.
As leaders always look for new ideas, they can also play a crucial role in driving change within organisations. Moreover, a leader inspires positive, incremental change by empowering employees to work toward common objectives. A leader’s most powerful tool for doing so is efficient communication.
Change communication messages coming from leaders should get people prepared to do things differently and give the reason why, while managers should continuously reinforce these messages. Yet, many managers are not even aware of why a change is happening.
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