Management vs. Leadership ?

One comment I often hear is that it is better to be a leader than a manager. Just like the title of this post, the words are often pitted against each other, as if they are mutually exclusive terms. Are you a leader or are you a manager?

I hear this question in every audience, from undergraduates to doctoral students to veteran law enforcement professionals. I would like to dispel the notion that leaders are better than managers or worse, being a manager is bad and being a leader is good. Heresy, you say? Read on.

They are not, in my opinion, opposing forces. On the contrary, I believe that having good management skills is a prerequisite to being a good leader. Perhaps I should explain a little more.

I view management and leadership as behaviors rather than labels. In other words, they are not personas- you don’t show up for work as either a leader or a manager. These are terms for how people behave. (This blog, and leadership, in general, is all about human behavior.) They each contain skills that, in the broad scope of leadership, will help you to ethically influence others.

Let’s start with the concept of management. Businessdictionary.com defines management as “The organization and coordination of the activities of a business in order to achieve defined objectives.” Management behaviors are concerned with systems and structure. These include planning, organizing, budgeting, staffing, scheduling, policies, and pay systems. While none of these activities sound glamorous, any good leader must be minimally competent in all areas. Imagine if you were labeled as a “good leader” in your organization but you failed to schedule your staff properly, submitted an inadequate budget for the next fiscal year, or worse, yet, forgot to maintain your pay system, resulting in your team members missing a paycheck? I’m not sure your reputation as a “good leader” would last very long if these management shortcomings continued.

Whereas management is concerned with systems, structures, and things, leadership is all about people. I just searched “definition of leadership” in Google and received 127 billion returns. While there is no universal definition of leadership, there are a few that I like. Leadership scholar Peter Northouse (2007) defines leadership as “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.” Peter Drucker once said, “The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers.”

My personal favorite (since it is my own) is this, Leadership is the process of influencing human behavior to create engagement, achieve organizational goals, and prepare followers for future leadership roles. Your followers should not just follow you, they should be engaged. Engaged followers are those who are enthusiastic and committed to the mission of the organization. One of your roles, as a leader, is to see leadership potential in others and be willing to work with, teach, and coach them so they will be prepared to step into future leadership roles.

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