Leadership and management are similar in many ways, yet they are also different in many ways. One would certainly think that they are the same, but I'm going to point out their differences. Understanding the meaning of what is meant by leadership and what is meant by management is crucial to understanding the differences between the two.
Leadership Defined Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individual to achieve a common goal. It is about adaptation and constructive change. Leadership is a transactional event that occurs between the leader and his or her followers. A leader can lead by example and teach goodness or badness of their followers’ action and correct their character and behavior. The most notable personality traits of a leader are intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability.
Management Defined Management is a process using organizational resources to achieve organizational goals effectively and efficiently through planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling. It is a measure of the goals that managers have selected for the organization to pursue and to the degree to which the organization achieve those goals. The most notable personality traits of a manager are extraversion, negative affectivity, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience.
Leadership versus Management In many ways leadership and management are similar. Both styles involve influences over others, both require working with others and both require goal accomplishments or tasks completion. Though there are many similarities between a leader and a manager, there are also many differences:
All leaders can be managers, but I do not think that all managers can be leaders. I say this because managers are those individuals who establish rules and procedures whereas leaders build teams and coalitions.
Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing.
Managers enforce the policies and procedures that have been defined by the organization whereas leaders do things intuitively.
A leader does not necessarily manage the actions of others but set examples for them to be able to follow. A leader may not even have the title of “leader” but certainly displays the actions of one.
Based on the descriptions above, would you say that you are a leader or a manager?
