Understanding the Differences: Leadership vs.

Management
Is a good manager automatically a good leader? What is the difference between
leadership and management?

The main difference between leaders and managers is that leaders have people follow
them while managers have people who work for them.

A successful business owner needs to be both a strong leader and manager to get
their team on board to follow them towards their vision of success. Leadership is about
getting people to understand and believe in your vision and to work with you to achieve
your goals while managing is more about administering and making sure the day-to-
day things are happening as they should.

WHILE THERE ARE MANY TRAITS THAT MAKE UP A STRONG

LEADER, SOME OF THE KEY CHARACTERISTICS ARE:

 Honesty & Integrity: are crucial to get your people to believe you and buy in to
the journey you are taking them on
 Vision: know where you are, where you want to go and enroll your team in
charting a path for the future
 Inspiration: inspire your team to be all they can by making sure they understand
their role in the bigger picture
 Ability to Challenge: do not be afraid to challenge the status quo, do things
differently and have the courage to think outside the box
 Communication Skills: keep your team informed of the journey, where you are,
where you are heading and share any roadblocks you may encounter along the
way

SOME OF THE COMMON TRAITS SHARED BY STRONG MANAGERS

ARE:

 Being Able to Execute a Vision: take a strategic vision and break it down into a
roadmap to be followed by the team
 Ability to Direct: day-to-day work efforts, review resources needed and
anticipate needs along the way
 Process Management: establish work rules, processes, standards and
operating procedures
 People Focused: look after your people, their needs, listen to them and involve
them

In order for you to engage your staff in providing the best service to your guests, clients
or partners, you must enroll them in your vision and align their perceptions and
behaviours. You need to get them excited about where you are taking them while
making sure they know what’s in it for them. With smaller organizations, the challenge
lies in making sure you are both leading our team as well as managing your day to
day operation. Those who are able to do both, will create a competitive advantage.

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Are you both a leader and a manager; what would your staff say if you were to ask
them?

The Difference between Leadership and Management

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People often mistake leadership and management as the same thing but in essence,
they are very different. The main difference between the two is that leaders have
people that follow them, while managers have people who simply work for them.
Particularly in small businesses, for a small business owner to be successful they need
to be both a strong leader and manager to get their team on board with working
towards their vision of success. Leadership is about getting people to comprehend
and believe in the vision you set for the company and to work with you on achieving
your goals, while management is more about administering and making sure the day-
to-day activities are happening as they should.

Leadership and management must go hand in hand. They are not the same thing, but
they are necessarily linked and complementary to one another. Any effort to separate
the two within an organisation is likely to cause more problems than it solves. For any
company to be successful, it needs management that can plan, organise and
coordinate its staff, while also inspiring and motivating them to perform to the best of
their ability.

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LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT INSPIRING AND MANAGEMENT IS ABOUT
PLANNING

Leaders have a tendency to praise success and drive people, whereas managers work
to find faults. They paint a picture of what they see as possible for the company and
work to inspire and engage their people in turning that vision into reality. Rather than
seeing individuals as just a particular set of skills, they think beyond what they do and
activate them to be part of something much bigger. They’re well aware of how high-
functioning teams can accomplish a lot more when working together than individuals
working autonomously are ever able to achieve.

For both sides to understand what they have to do, and to achieve excellence in doing
it, they need to comprehend the essence of the difference between them. This is a
matter of definition – understanding how the roles are different and how they might
overlap. Managers, on the other hand, will focus on setting, measuring and achieving
goals by controlling situations to reach or exceed their objectives.

MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP

Managers Give Directions Leaders ask questions

Managers have subordinates Leaders have followers

Managers use an authoritarian style Leaders have a motivational style

Managers tell what to do Leaders show what to do

Managers have good ideas Leaders implement good ideas

Managers react to change Leaders create change

Managers try to be heroes Leaders make heroes of everyone around them

Managers exercise power over people Leaders develop power with people

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You must think of one without the other to truly see the differences that exist
between them. Management without leadership controls resources to maintain.

There are many different types of leadership and management styles where
different situations, groups, or cultures, may require the use of different styles
in order to set a direction or ensure that it is followed.

One way to decipher which of the two you may be is to count the number of people
outside your reporting hierarchy who come to you for advice. The more that do, the
more likely it is that you are perceived to be a leader.

John Kotter, Professor of Leadership at Harvard University fears that too often,
employers use the terms synonymously. If an organisation is run effectively,
leadership and management will exist in tandem.

Mentoring and formal training can help employees utilise and use their leadership
skills. According to research by the Chartered Management Institute, 90% of
members who have completed a management and leadership qualification
found the experience improved their performance at work. There was also a
“ripple effect”, with 81% of those surveyed passing on their knowledge to
colleagues.

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Celebrating individual leaders can also cause some to forget that it is never just one
person running the show.

Not everyone who is in charge of a team is both a leader and a manager, in order to
have a successful organisation, there needs to be a mixture of both.
Many people are both, having managed people but realised that you cannot buy
people to follow you down a difficult path, and so act as leaders too. The challenge
lies in making sure you are both leading your team as well as managing your day to
day operation. Those who are able to do both, will create a competitive advantage.

Mindset can also have a powerful effect on the success of a leader, Understanding
Emotional Contagion can be a tool to success.

An organizational chart (often called organization chart, org chart, organigram(me), or

organogram) is a diagram that shows the structure of an organization and the relationships
and relative ranks of its parts and positions/jobs.

An example of a hospital organogram

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Functions of Management
Management has been described as a social process involving responsibility for
economical and effective planning & regulation of operation of an enterprise in the
fulfillment of given purposes. It is a dynamic process consisting of various elements
and activities. These activities are different from operative functions like marketing,
finance, purchase etc. Rather these activities are common to each and every manger
irrespective of his level or status.

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Different experts have classified functions of management. According to George &
Jerry, “There are four fundamental functions of management i.e. planning, organizing,
actuating and controlling”.

According to Henry Fayol, “To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to

command, & to control”. Whereas Luther Gullick has given a keyword ’POSDCORB’
where P stands for Planning, O for Organizing, S for Staffing, D for Directing, Co for
Co-ordination, R for reporting & B for Budgeting. But the most widely accepted are
functions of management given by KOONTZ and O’DONNEL i.e. Planning,
Organizing, Staffing, Directing and Controlling.

For theoretical purposes, it may be convenient to separate the function of

management but practically these functions are overlapping in nature i.e. they are
highly inseparable. Each function blends into the other & each affects the performance
of others.

1. Planning

It is the basic function of management. It deals with chalking out a future course
of action & deciding in advance the most appropriate course of actions for
achievement of pre-determined goals. According to KOONTZ, “Planning is
deciding in advance - what to do, when to do & how to do. It bridges the gap
from where we are & where we want to be”. A plan is a future course of actions.
It is an exercise in problem solving & decision making. Planning is
determination of courses of action to achieve desired goals. Thus, planning is
a systematic thinking about ways & means for accomplishment of pre-
determined goals. Planning is necessary to ensure proper utilization of human
& non-human resources. It is all pervasive, it is an intellectual activity and it also
helps in avoiding confusion, uncertainties, risks, wastages etc.

2. Organizing

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 It is the process of bringing together physical, financial and human resources
and developing productive relationship amongst them for achievement of
organizational goals. According to Henry Fayol, “To organize a business is to
provide it with everything useful or its functioning i.e. raw material, tools, capital
and personnel’s”. To organize a business involves determining & providing
human and non-human resources to the organizational structure. Organizing
as a process involves:

 Identification of activities.
 Classification of grouping of activities.
 Assignment of duties.
 Delegation of authority and creation of responsibility.
 Coordinating authority and responsibility relationships.
3. Staffing

It is the function of manning the organization structure and keeping it manned.

Staffing has assumed greater importance in the recent years due to
advancement of technology, increase in size of business, complexity of human
behavior etc. The main purpose o staffing is to put right man on right job i.e.
square pegs in square holes and round pegs in round holes. According to Kootz
& O’Donell, “Managerial function of staffing involves manning the organization
structure through proper and effective selection, appraisal & development of
personnel to fill the roles designed un the structure”. Staffing involves:

 Manpower Planning (estimating man power in terms of searching, choose the

person and giving the right place).
 Recruitment, Selection & Placement.
 Training & Development.
 Remuneration.
 Performance Appraisal.
 Promotions & Transfer.

4. Directing

It is that part of managerial function which actuates the organizational methods

to work efficiently for achievement of organizational purposes. It is considered
life-spark of the enterprise which sets it in motion the action of people because
planning, organizing and staffing are the mere preparations for doing the work.
Direction is that inert-personnel aspect of management which deals directly with
influencing, guiding, supervising, motivating sub-ordinate for the achievement
of organizational goals. Direction has following elements:

 Supervision
 Motivation
 Leadership
 Communication

Supervision- implies overseeing the work of subordinates by their superiors. It

is the act of watching & directing work & workers.

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 Motivation- means inspiring, stimulating or encouraging the sub-ordinates with
zeal to work. Positive, negative, monetary, non-monetary incentives may be
used for this purpose.

Leadership- may be defined as a process by which manager guides and

influences the work of subordinates in desired direction.

Communications- is the process of passing information, experience, opinion

etc from one person to another. It is a bridge of understanding.

5. Controlling

It implies measurement of accomplishment against the standards and

correction of deviation if any to ensure achievement of organizational goals.
The purpose of controlling is to ensure that everything occurs in conformities
with the standards. An efficient system of control helps to predict deviations
before they actually occur. According to Theo Haimann, “Controlling is the
process of checking whether or not proper progress is being made towards the
objectives and goals and acting if necessary, to correct any deviation”.
According to Koontz & O’Donell “Controlling is the measurement & correction
of performance activities of subordinates in order to make sure that the
enterprise objectives and plans desired to obtain them as being accomplished”.
Therefore controlling has following steps:

a. Establishment of standard performance.

b. Measurement of actual performance.
c. Comparison of actual performance with the standards and finding out deviation
if any.
d. Corrective action.

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