Relationship Between Leadership and Management !!

In the leadership development industry, there is a lot of confusion about the relationship between leadership and management. Many people use the terms interchangeably. Others see them as separate, but give different reasons why.

Confusion and Mistakes
Most dictionaries suggest leadership and management are quite similar - guiding or controlling a group of people to achieve a goal. Most web articles suggest that leadership and management are different, but offer contradictory reasons, such as: leadership inspires, management plans; leaders praise, managers find fault; leaders ask questions, managers give directions; etc. However, the qualities often ascribed to leadership can also apply to managers. There can be good and bad leaders, and there can be good and bad managers.

The Need for Clarity
For leaders and managers to understand what they have to do, and to achieve excellence in doing it, they need to understand the essence of the difference between them. This is a matter of definition - understanding how the roles are different and how they might overlap.

Do you consider the terms “management” and “leadership” to be synonymous?  Are you confused while discussing these two terms?  Do you use the terms “management” and “leadership” interchangeably?  Do you fail to see the difference between the two and the significant tasks that each role plays?

“Managing” and “leading” are completely different tasks. And yet, at the same time, are being performed by the same or a different set of people.  They may not necessarily be the same. Rather, it is more likely that they are not the same. This varies from organisation to organisation. Leadership and management are very different skills. Some of the best leaders cannot manage very well. At the same time, some of the best managers are not good leaders. Yet, both contribute in a big way to the organisation’s performance and growth. Both generate productivity and profitability.

Generally, it has been observed that people use the term “leadership” to refer to the people at the top of the hierarchy. Layers below them in the organisation are called as “management”. And all at the bottom of the hierarchy are known as “employees” or “workers”. This is quite misleading. One could argue, however that the terms carry similarity; yet are different. But being aware of the difference is significant to any organisation that is looking forward to develop leaders.

So how are they different? For instance, among given categories like promoters, CEOs, functional heads, managers, etc, how does one identify who is the manager and who is the leader? Leadership is about vision, about people buying-in, about empowerment and, most of all, producing useful change. And in an ever-faster moving world, leadership is increasingly needed from more and more people, no matter where they are in a hierarchy. Great leaders discover what is universal and capitalise on it. Their job is to rally people toward a better future.

Some people still suggest that we must bring change and hence, replace management with leadership. They serve different, yet essential, functions. We need effective management. And we need more effective leadership. We need to be able to make our complex organisations reliable and efficient. We need them to jump into the future at an accelerated pace, no matter the size of the changes required to make that happen.

There are very, very few organisations today that have sufficient leadership. Until we face this issue and understand exactly what the problem is, we’re never going to solve it. Unless we recognise that we’re not talking about management when we speak of leadership, all we will try to do when we do need more leadership is work harder to manage. At a certain point, we end up with over-managed and under-led organisations.

Therefore, let’s clearly differentiate between leadership and management:-

Management - Management means directing and controlling a group of one or more people or entities for the purpose of coordinating and harmonising that group towards accomplishing a goal. Managers tend to be rational, under control, problem-solvers. They often focus on goals, structures, personnel, and availability of resources. Managers’ personalities lean toward persistence, strong will, analysis, and intelligence. They focus on managing work and bringing results with an approach of making strategies, policies, and methods to create teams and ideas that combine to operate smoothly. They empower people by soliciting their views, values, and principles. They believe that this combination reduces inherent risk and generates success.

Leadership - Leadership means “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, facilitate and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organisations of which they are members”. Leaders are often called brilliant and mercurial, with great charisma. Yet, they are also often seen as loners and private people. They are comfortable taking risks, sometimes seemingly wild and crazy ones. Their focus is to lead people and outcomes are achievements.

Prepared & Collection by M.Ajmal Khan.