LEADERS VS. MANAGERS

Leadership and management is NOT the same!

Many people often use the terms management and leadership interchangeably, but they are really two completely different concepts. Unlike management, leadership is a vocation rather than a position. While management can be assigned or chosen, leadership is something to which someone must be called. A person who takes a leadership position so they may assume a particular status or control within an organization is a manager—not a leader. While management and leadership have many similar characteristics, the motivations of practitioners are very different. According to Richard Daft (2008), the purpose of management is “the attainment of organizational goals in an effective and efficient manner through planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling organizational resources” (p. 14). 

Managers seek stability in an organized environment in order to control the organization’s bottom line. The motivation for management is power and profit. Leadership is different because it is “an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes and outcomes that reflect their shared purposes” (Daft, 2008, p. 4). 

Leaders provide a vision for the future of the organization and often question the way things are done because they want to move the organization and its people forward instead of merely maintaining a stable environment. The motivation for leadership is people and progress “by building networks of positive relationships” (Daft, 2008, p. 357).

Reference

Daft, R. L. (2008). The leadership experience (4th ed.). Mason, OH: SouthWestern.