The Difference Between Management and Leadership

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.

Before we look at what leadership styles there are it is important to define what the difference is between management and leadership.

Leadership is a facet of management. It is just one of the many assets a successful manager must possess. The main aim of a manager is to maximize the output of the organization through administrative implementation. To achieve this managers must undertake the four functions of management: planning, organization, leading and controlling. In some cases leadership is just one important component of the leading function. Predpall (1994) said, "Leaders must let vision, strategies, goals, and values be the guide-post for action and behavior rather than attempting to control others". In some circumstances, leadership is not required. For example, self-motivated groups may not require a single leader and may find leaders dominating. The fact that a leader is not always required proves that leadership is just an asset and is not essential.

Although the terms “management” and “leadership” are often confused as in meaning the same there is a distinction between the words. The distinction between the words is that people manage things and lead people (Collins, 2017).

To fully explain the relationship between Leadership and Management we need to appreciate that the two go hand in hand, they are by no means the same thing but they complement each other when driving any team to perform and exceed targets within a business. The manager’s job is very task-focused. They often have to follow company

Much has been written about the difference between management and leadership. In the past, competent management staffs ran effective companies. In light of our ever-changing world, however, most companies have come to realize that it is much more important to lead than to manage. In today's world the old ways of management no longer work. One reason is that the degree of environmental and competitive change we are experiencing is extreme. Although exciting, the world is also very unstable and confused. In an article entitled What’s the Difference between Your Hospital and the Other? Gary Campbell states that the difference between a manager and a leader is that the manager “finds himself quite willing to

While the sheep are busy eating the grasses in the field, the shepherd must search for green pastures. Just like the shepherd in the fields, a leader in the business world must know where his team is headed, aligning their strategy with the group’s goals. They must step up in order to lead their group. In this chapter, it was also emphasized that just like the gentleness of the staff, a good leader must use persuasion and not coercion.

A leader is someone that makes decisions that are best for the situation that arises. Most often, these no one has encountered these kinds of situations before. A leader is observant and always aware of their surroundings, notices changes as they occur, and can make decisions based on those changes. An example of a leader is someone that is innovative and likes to keep with new procedures that are being performed. They use evidence-based practice to implement new ways of doing things that will be beneficial to their unit. For example, a leader will want to try new things that will help speed up wound healing. A leader is approachable, charismatic, and can relate to others. Coworkers are usually drawn to this person and want to follow them instead of being forced to follow. A manager is someone that oversees others as they follow processes that have already been established. Instead of looking for ways to make things better, the manager makes sure others are following procedures as they have been done before. To compare in the example above, a manager would make sure other nurses follow wound care procedures according to facility policies. If everything is currently working the way it is expected, there is no need for change. When it comes to decision-making, mangers make decisions that are routine and are not very complicated. A follower interacts with those who lead and manage. There are different kinds of followers. There are followers who

Management and leadership are viewed as two different perspectives in the business environment. As described by Dr. Warren Bennis ‘Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing’, this means that managers do things by the set rules and follow company policy, while leaders follow their own intuition, which may in turn be of more benefit to the company.

Leadership is just one of the many assets a successful manager must possess. Care must be taken in distinguishing between the two concepts. The main aim of a manager is to maximize the output of the organization through administrative implementation.

In corporate America the term used to describe a person in a position of power is “Manager”. A leader can be a manager, but a manager is not necessarily a leader. Leaders motivate, challenge, and influence others to achieve goals. Great leaders have the necessary skills and attributes which allow them to connect with the team and organization. Being a leader is not the same as managing an organization. Leader’s posses the interpersonal skills needed to influence others to achieve a goal willingly. Leading is a major part of a manager’s job. Leaders do not need to be a manager to lead people, but managers must know how to lead as well as manage.

All the above mentioned descriptions emphasize on basic idea from where we can extract the result Leadership is the art of getting things done by inspiration, influence or motivating its followers while Management mainly depends on the analysis and ground realities.

Within a group, the member who fulfills the role of the leader will invariably have both a direct and indirect effect on the group as a whole (Beattie, Girvan, Rayner, Rayner & Bell, 2014). In the words of John C. Maxwell: “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” Throughout history, there have been a countless number of people that are identified as leaders. An effective leader will possess the desired characteristics and will be able to assess a variety of tasks. According to Dereli (2003), there are a number of definitions of leadership, and the literature suggests that there is a distinction between a leader and a manager. Winston and Patterson (2006) state that leadership is defined as one or more individuals, who are able to select a variety of strategies, and influence followers to work towards a common goal or objective. Darr’s (2011) research distinguishes managers and leaders based on the idea that managers take on the caretaker role, whereby maintaining the status quo. This can be identified as a transactional leadership role (Darr, 2011). Odumeru and Ifeanyi (2013) state that the transactional role requires the individual to supervise and organise group performance. Darr (2011) also states that in comparison to a manager, leaders are seen to be more as visionaries and much more dynamic. Many leaders are viewed differently, because they possess or demonstrate transformational leadership qualities and characteristics . Yukl (1999)

The relation between leadership and management has for a longtime influenced how organizations are perceived. It has also contributed to maintain some type of confusion in education and within the organization itself.

For a quick review, the definition of leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group or individuals, to achieve a common goal.