What is the difference between management vs. leadership? The words are often used interchangeably, so it can be hard to distinguish the difference between them. This article will examine what makes management different from leadership and their similarities.
Part of what makes it hard to determine management vs. leadership is that as a manager, you also want to be a leader, and those in leadership positions can sometimes be managers.
What is a manager?
Managers are typically promoted after being exceptional individual contributors. Managers become responsible for more people or a more significant project than they can achieve alone.
According to the book “The First-Time Manager” managers are responsible for:
- hiring people
- communicating with their team
- planning
- organizing
- training
- monitoring
- evaluating
- firing
These tasks are much different from your tasks as an individual contributor. The change you make from an individual contributor to a manager is significant—the type of work you are doing changes substantially.
As an individual contributor, the primary value you provided to your company was what you could produce due to your talents and abilities.
When you become a manager, you focus on people instead of tasks and must learn to work through others instead of just doing the work yourself.
You become focused on your team’s success and have broadened your focus to how your team fits into your organization’s needs instead of just your individual work.
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While this explains how a manager differs from an individual contributor, it doesn’t go into management vs. leadership.
“At the risk of oversimplifying the difference, management is about controlling, and leadership is about inspiring.”
-The First-Time Manager by Loren B. Belker, Jim McCormick & Gary S. Topchik
What Characteristics do Management & Leadership share?
Both management and leadership are about people and helping to get the best out of people and are deeply about caring for people.
Management vs. Leadership
Management is about responsibility and the processes to achieve specific outcomes.
Leadership is about inspiring other people to do the best that they are capable of.
Managers hold one-on-ones, remove blockers that their team members may be having, communicate with their team about the broader initiative in the company, and help develop the careers of their direct reports.
Leaders are visionaries for their teams and also for their companies. They think of their vision for the future, communicate it to others, and inspire others to help them bring that vision to life.
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Managers have authority because of the position they are in. Leaders have power because people want to follow them. Leadership is much more about influence and leverage than management is.
Leaders lead by example, take full responsibility, and are willing to do anything they ask of someone else. They are confident and self-assured. They are decisive, and others look to them for direction because others trust their judgment.
When you become an effective and exceptional manager, you will become a leader as well.