Leadership versus Management

There is an ongoing debate about the correlation between leadership and management — does a manager have to be a great leader and does a leader need to have good management skills? What is the difference between leadership and management?

Leadership is doing the right things; management is doing things right. - Peter Drucker

Summary

Managing and leading are two different ways of organizing people. Leadership is setting a new direction or vision for a group that they follow — i.e., a leader is the spearhead for that new direction. On the other hand, management controls or directs people/resources in a group according to principles or values that have already been established. The manager uses a formal, rational method whilst the leader uses passion and stirs emotions.

Authority

People naturally and willingly follow leaders due to their charisma and personality traits, whereas a manager is obeyed due to the formal authority vested in him/her. As a result, people tend to be more loyal towards leaders rather than managers.

Role conflicts

Leadership is one of the several facets of management. Often the same people play wear different hats - both leader and manager - at different points in time. Although not essential, it certainly helps a manager if he/she is also a good leader. Conversely, leaders do well if they have some degree of management skills because it helps them envision the implementation of their strategic vision.

Self-motivated groups may not need a leader and may find leaders dominating. Alternatively, small teams may find a natural leader emerge based on his/her specialized skills. But this leader may be subordinate to the team manager in the organizational hierarchy, which may lead to conflicts.

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