The Difference between Leadership and Management

The Difference between Leadership and Management

People often get confused, and they feel that leadership and management are the same things. Both these terms are used interchangeably. In this article, we’ll tell you the difference between leadership and management.

What Are the Terms Leader and Manager?

If you’re doing a job in any company, you often heard the terms leader and manager. You start wondering what the meaning of these terms is. Let me tell you again; both these terms are used interchangeably. That’s why they confuse people.

What Is the Role of Managers?

A manager is responsible for carrying out four functions, such as planning, organizing, controlling, and leading. Now the question arises, do all the managers are leaders? Yes, they can and can’t be. Managers can be leaders if they can carry out leaders’ responsibilities, such as providing inspiration, motivation, guidance, and encouraging employees for better productivity.

It must be clear that all the managers can’t be leaders because most managers have poor leadership skills. Employees are bound to follow the management orders, and wrong orders can harm business. Manager’s duties are defined, and they have to meet organizational goals and objectives.

They ignore other factors. Managers are responsible for their actions, and they also have to be accountable for the actions of subordinates.

What Is the Role of Leaders?

It’s not necessary that leaders occupy the manager’s position. It means that leaders don’t have specified roles. Moreover, anyone can be the leader in the organization. Leaders are different from managers, and employees love to follow them because of their personality, beliefs, and behavior.

A leader shows a high level of passion for work. Leaders want to see their followers successful. These goals are not necessarily organizational goals.

Main Differences between a Leader and a Manager

A person can’t be the leader and manager at the same time. So, let’s explore the difference between the two.

• Manager organizes, and leader innovates

A manager is responsible for maintaining the already established things. A manager has to keep the bottom line in mind while controlling the employees and workflow. In contrast, a leader comes with new ideas. A leader develops new techniques and strategies that can help the organization. A leader has immense knowledge of trends and has a clear vision.

• Leader improves confidence and trust, and manager relies on control

A leader encourages employees to do their best and knows how to guide them to set a pace for a particular task. In contrast, managers have to control their employees. They almost do the same thing but in different ways. Managers have to understand their subordinates well to do the job professionally.

• The leader asks questions like what and why and the manager asks how and when

Good leaders must have good judgment ability to make the right decisions and reverse their decision in case of any challenge. If a company loses track, the leader will ask questions like what we have learned from this. On the other hand, managers don’t assess success and failures.

So these are the main differences between leadership and management that everyone should know.