UPDATE - Thanks to my friend, Lee White in South Carolina, I’ve discovered that the super-brainy Rachel Happe has posted on similar matters today. I am a huge fan of Rachel, so utterly delighted that she thinks the same way.
I’ve just started back on some postgraduate study, and one of the initial discussions we’re having is a vigorous analysis of the difference between management and leadership.
I’ve got strong opinions about this, having frequently been managed and rarely led. Here’s the contribution I made to the group:
A manager spends their time ensuring all the ducks are in a row. That all the tasks are done, that all the required reporting happens in the right way and that work is delivered on time and on budget. A manager’srole is reflected in the org chart and their authority is accorded to them by the organisation.
A leader inspires, draws people in and brings them along, as equals, on a journey. Often, a leader takes people to a goal where higher ideals and more engaging work are the norm. A leader may also be the person who is the source of knowledge and clarity on a particular subject or issue. Leaders are rarely reflected on the org chart and their authority derives from the social capital afforded to them by those around them.
Few managers are great leaders and only some leaders are good managers. In most organisations people are promoted to positions in management due to perceived technical expertise, rather than either management or leadership skills. It is for this reason that so many organisations suffer through bad management. Equally, those promoted to positions of leadership, in the sense of the org chart, are rarely equipped to be such.
Management is a skill that can be learned. True leadership is innate.
You need both in your organisation. You need to know the difference.
What do you think?
The management vs. leadership is well documented in the literature. The idea that one can be learned and the other innate, however, is not. One of the great things about going back to school is the opportunity to learn how strongly held beliefs, which have seemingly gotten one along quite well, are simply not substantiated. It was a jarring experience for me when I went back to school. Enjoy!
Trib -
Absolutely! There is a clear difference between a manager and a leader. Ideally, your boss would be both. But there are very different skill sets involved.
Although I am not sure that either is innate or not learnable. I have seen lots of managers who remain terrible managers, no matter how much training they are given and others who take to it like a fish to water. Similarly, I see leaders emerge after successful training.
Provocative post Stephen: and one well worth an extended discussion.
I would add one point, I see leadership as a responsibility of managers. Albeit one that is not always risen to. Like Doug, however, I think some managers can learn to lead provided they are, in turn, led and supported by their managers…
Trib
In my experience, organisational leadership is rare, and management is largely about control. Management have vested interests in maintaining control over resources to produce defined outputs based on past assumptions about what the organisation should be doing to produce value.
Leadership is about influencing change (technically, that change can be positive…and negative - there were some ugly leaders in the 20th century, others were inspirational).
In practice, most organisations confuse leadership and management. I’m a strategic thinker - most people in management are uncomfortable with strategic thinking. It’s too threatening. Most organisations are really slack at being strategic.
Some leaders - who understand and appreciate the value of strategic thinking - have motivated and inspired me.
@Jason - absolutely!
Managers everywhere ought rightly to be leaders. And yes, it is often a struggle that managers fail to rise to.
That said, it is often the case that a manager desires deeply to be a good leader for those around them and to whom they bear management responsibility. What happens though, is that the manager is not supported in doing so by their own management, who is equally failing to lead.
In terms of my statement about learned and innate skills, that’s largely an observation. I’ve encountered few true leaders who weren’t “naturals”, even if some of the skills of leadership had been taught to them. Management though, is definitely a skill set that can be taught. Whether it’s taught, learned or practiced well is entirely another matter.
Trib
Check out Rachel Happe’s post today. Eerily similar topic. Do you guys have a psychic link?
http://www.thesocialorganization.com/2008/07/lead-from-the-back.html Lee
Nice post - I’ve always thought that the difference is that: a leader helps people decide to do something they otherwise wouldn’t have done and a manager cajoles/orders/nags/uses authority to do the same.
Hi Stephen -
Great post. I’m not sure where I come out on the managers vs. leaders debate but what I have observed having worked with so many types of companies is that organizations need both visionaries and process people…and that almost always creates tension. That tension, however, and the constant negotiation between what is needed to be successful today and what is needed to be successful in the long term is vital to long term success.
The two things that are critical - self knowledge and the ability to seek out and accept constructive confrontation. Both of those skills are very, very rare. Most of the people I’ve worked with over the years don’t want to admit any limitations (and therefore can’t really identify what they are good at) and most people cringe at confrontation because they assume it has to be aggressive or personal… instead of just seeing it as a difference of approach that needs to be negotiated.
Very interesting conversation though. Interested in hearing more about what you are studying!
So good to read your comment Rachel. Creative conversation (or contructive confrontation) is hugely beneficial to strategic thinking but so rear in organisational practice. The Participative Web offers rich opportunity to get around organisational barriers.
I think leadership can also be learnt :) Renai
I was so excited to find someone who gets it. Managers are generally not leaders. Leaders don’t have to be manafers. I was “with you” right up until the end. That is where the agreement crashed and burned. As one who coaches in leadership, I can assure you that it is definitely a learned skill. While some appear to come about the ability to lead naturally, they don’t. They generally could not tell you what about them makes them a good leader. They just know that it works. There is a process to becoming a leader. As a matter of fact my latest two blog entries outline the process. I hope you can visit: http://www.hdleadership.blogspot.com
@DA - my initial statement, that “true leadership is innate”, is something I stand by. As with management, there are skills that can be learned, practiced and executed; and very well at that.
However, the telling word here is “true”. My contention is that in talking about “true leaders”, I’m talking about only the very best - those that can and do lead completely naturally. These are the born leaders.
Trained leaders can be very, very good. But the naturals are the ones that we remember.
Of course, I don’t believe for one moment that my position is the one true view. Having experienced people like you come here and put a counter position is what makes discussing this stuff worthwhile.
I’ve been interested in this difference two for quite some time. To me it boils down to this.
Management controls. Leadership on the other hand, empowers. http://www.librarybytes.com/2006/09/on-control-empowerment.html
Fascinating - Leadership and Management often seem at odds to me because one serves a vision, a notion of what could be, an aspiration, and one serves an organisation and a structure. To some extent it is organisational culture that will dictate how much leadership is nurtured in the ranks or how much management is present. One delivers functioning organisations which are accountable and one delivers dynamic organisations. But a bit like artists I think you can educate people to have the technical ability to be leaders but really powerful inspirational leaders have it in them…