The Difference Between Leadership and Management

Hi there, I'm Ben Morton and welcome to another episode of the Leaders Kit Bag. It's the weekly micro edition of my podcast. Each episode is just six minutes long and is designed to provide you with tips, tools and tactics around specific aspects of leadership and management. It addresses some of the most common, common challenges you will face as a leader or manager. They are all recorded unscripted whilst I'm out walking in the countryside. So you'll probably hear birds tweeting in the background or just ambient noise as the people around me are going about their day to day life. That's all I'm going to say by way of an introduction. So let's dive straight in to this week's episode. If you are a newly appointed leader.

Or manager, then today's episode of the Leaders Kit Bag is for you. And if you're an experienced leader or manager but you've never had much leadership or management training, then today's episode is also for you. Why? Because in six minutes or so we're going back to basics and looking at the final fundamental differences on a practical level between leadership and management. I quite often see posts online, particularly on LinkedIn, that start with the heading Leadership versus Management. Now, without getting too caught up on language and the nuance of language, I find those posts a little unhelpful or a little challenging at least. Why? Because the inclusion of the word versus suggests that we are pitting one discipline against the other. It suggests perhaps that one is better than the other. And yes, it's absolutely true that leadership and management are different disciplines, but it's not a case that one is better than the other. They're both needed for an organization to be effective, and very often, if not always for people in a leadership or management role, we need both. The individual leader or manager needs to be using leadership and management skills. It's just a case of as we step into more and more senior leadership roles, we start dialing up the leadership and notching the management down a little. The late Peter Drucker had a great quote or definition of the two. He said, to paraphrase, managers make sure things are done right whilst the leaders are making sure people are doing the right things. I love that definition and at the same time I think it doesn't quite tell the full story. I think we need to consider a couple other factors to get the full picture about the differences between the two. So to add some more detail, the leaders are the ones, or when we're in leader mode, we are thinking much more about the vision and direction, where we're going, what we are trying to build. Managers, on the other hand, or when we are managing, we are much more focused on execution and implementation. When we are in leader mode, we are thinking about the long term, or at least the medium term. When we're in management mode, we're thinking much more about the here and the now. And the third extra dimension I would add here, which is potentially, I believe one of the most significant and important differences between leadership and management is that leadership is focused much more on inspiration and motivation, engaging people so they want to go the extra mile. They want, they want to deliver, they want to work hard. Whereas management is much more about coordination and organization. So hopefully you can see that, yes, they are two different disciplines, but for a good leader or a good manager, we will be using both. And as I said before, as we step into more and more senior leadership roles, it's a case of dialing up the leadership and moving down the management. Think of it, if you will, as a graphic equalizer on an old stereo or DJ mixing deck. Pushing up the leadership dial and sliding down the management dial just a notch or two. And the final thing, remember, as with almost everything in leadership, what we do is based on the context and the situation. It's never a black or white solution that we need to take. Hope it's been useful. As always, folks, look after yourself. Look after those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead. And until next time, lead on.