Leadership vs. Management: Understanding the key differences
Back to Blogs
The term leader and manager are often used interchangeably. We often class anyone in a position of authority in a business as a manager and someone at the top as a leader. The truth is there’s a vast difference between leadership and management and the role each plays in a business.
Leadership is about setting the direction, dreaming big, mapping out the vision.
Management is responsible for the work that gets the business there.
One can’t exist without the other, or at least can’t exist successfully.
It’s time to stop using the terms interchangeably and understand the real difference between their roles, impact and challenges.
What is the difference
There’s one thing leaders and managers both have in common, they want what’s best for their team and the firm. But for the most part, that’s where the similarities end.
In the simplest terms managers are about doing while leaders focus on the vision. Leaders determine where the firm is going and managers make sure the work is done to get there. For success, you need both managers and leaders.
There are, as you’d expect, a few caveats to this basic definition. You can be both a leader and a manager. It’s rare but it can happen. Often managers get bogged down with process and structure, leaving them little time to innovate and develop – but every once in a while you’ll find someone who excels at the doing and managing while also dreaming up big visions.
Leaders don’t have to be those in charge. In fact, you’ll often find a leader in bigger teams. It’s the person who’s got the social influence to maximize the effort of the wider team. It’s the person who’s motivating and celebrating success, inspiring others to work hard and keep going.
Why you need both leaders and managers
Both roles are integral to success, without one the other can’t succeed.
A leader’s prime role is to motivate and inspire others, you’ve only got to look at startups to see an individual with a clear vision, creating something from nothing. In those instances it’s the founder’s responsibility to engage others with that vision so they’re all working towards the same goal.
On its own a vision isn’t a business. That’s where managers come in. They organize the teams, connect work to the business objectives, ensuring that the tasks being completed are of value to the end goal.
John Kotter’s book A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs from Management explains that it’s essential to have both leaders and managers with clearly defined roles. With the goal of management to create order and consistency, and leaders create change by moving people “to a place in which both they and those who depend upon them are genuinely better off.”
When the two come together, that’s where the magic happens.
Leaders and challenges
Managers face challenges all day, every day. The job of managing people is not an easy one. The challenges that face leaders are of a different nature with potentially larger ramifications.
One lesson all leaders need to learn early on is to understand that others can do things better than you. That you don’t know everything and that it’s okay to hire people who know more than you. There’s a phrase that goes around that as a CEO you should aim to be the dumbest person in the room. Now I don’t agree with the phrasing, but I definitely agree with the sentiment, being able to step back and let others lead with the knowledge while you pull everything together is what distinguishes great leaders.
That’s particularly important for modern leaders. Today’s working world is so different to even 5 years ago that there are a few challenges that have rocked the leadership world.
Tech & AI
The reality is tech has changed the way we work. The pandemic saw an acceleration of technology adoption that far outpaced expectations. Combine that with generational attitudes towards tech and the workplace is a very different place.
Gen Z have grown up surrounded by technology, they don’t know a time of only 4 TV channels, or mobile phones that can only send and receive 10 text messages at a time. They live and breathe technology, making it second nature to them.
Then you’ve got your Millennials who were learning technology in their teens, they’re fairly adept but at the same time fearful of new developments such as AI.
Gen X are open to learning about it but they don’t have the same knowledge base of fluency that Gen Z have.
Balancing those generational differences and challenging your own fears, preconceptions and knowledge gaps as a leader is a real challenge. For leaders the struggle comes from managing people who are skilled in AI and technologies that you’ve only got a baseline understanding of. This is when as a leader you need to be able to accept that you don’t need to know the ins and outs but you do need to be able to lead, motivate and trust those people.
Remote working
Many leaders of a certain age were brought up to believe that to be a good worker you needed to put in the hours in the office. First one there in the morning, last one out of the door. That’s all changed now.
For leaders the challenge they face is twofold. Firstly, it’s how do you inspire and motivate teams when they’re physically disparate. Secondly, it’s how do you manage expectations around office attendance to ensure colleagues feel empowered but there’s enough unity to move forward.
There’s no clear answer on how to do this yet. We are constantly shown examples of different approaches and methods, some of which are working, others that aren’t.
Remote working is a challenge which isn’t going anywhere, and for many leaders it’s causing them to shift their approach. What worked in person isn’t translating online and that combined with the adoption of technology is creating a new working world for leaders to navigate.
This is where close communication with managers is key. While leaders are responsible for the bigger picture and motivating people, it’s managers who will be receiving the backlash from disgruntled employees. It’s only by working together and ensuring there’s a clear message being communicated by managers, but also that managers are communicating back to leadership what’s being said, what’s working and what’s not. That together leaders and managers can overcome this particular challenge.
Managers and leaders both play a key role in successful businesses. Leaders paint the bigger picture and draw us all into it, inspiring and motivating us in difficult times and making the impossible seem possible. Managers relate that vision to day-to-day tasks, making sure the work is done and keeping everyone on track. You can’t have a successful business with just managers or just leaders, it’s a balancing act.
Increasingly, leaders are facing challenges from new developments such as AI, tech innovations or remote working, and navigating through those situations is tricky. It’s through accepting their own limitations and celebrating those with deeper knowledge in specific areas that leaders can maneuver their way through these challenges. Well, that and developing open two-way communication with their managers. When managers and leaders play to their strengths, work together and communicate… well that’s where the magic happens.
About the author
Nicky Acuna Ocana is the Regional Managing Director of Ambition US, UK and Europe. Nicky is particularly passionate about DEI and publishes regular articles and thought leadership on inclusive hiring and retention.