There’s a lot of confusion about leadership and management today.
One person says leadership is this, another that. One person says management is this, another that. Some compare them one way, some a different way.
Then you have the leadership vs. management clichés, memes, and infographics that try to compare both of them, usually with leaders being angels with halos and managers as evil and terrible.
They are often popular because many people have had bad managers, and they see their bad managers in the graphics.
The problem is that the clichés and memes are generally wrong, and they hurt us instead of helping. If we want better leaders and managers in our world, we need to start looking at it correctly.
First, what is leadership and management, really?
We are where we are today with leadership (with nearly 80% of employees not engaged at work) partly because of the confusion mentioned above. Many really don’t understand what leadership and management is, so people practice poor leadership thinking it is correct.
Not only that, but it also gets even worse when people start thinking leadership is about themselves or whatever they want it to be.
Because of that, it’s important that we look at what leadership and management really is, and the difference between the two.
What is leadership?
Leadership is the process of guiding others through influence toward the accomplishment of a goal (you can learn more in this article here).
What is the difference between leadership and management?
The best explanation for the difference between leadership and management that I’ve seen comes from Julie Zhou’s book The Making of a Manager. In it she says (to paraphrase):
Leadership is a skill, management is a position. You don’t need a position to be a leader, but you can’t be a good manager without also being a good leader.
Leadership is guiding people through influence toward a goal, and it’s a skill that you can learn. A position isn’t required to lead. You can lead without a position and from any position.
Management is a position, and you can’t be a manager without being hired for that position. It’s made up of set functions (which may depend on the level of management, the company, the industry, etc.) that you must do, such as hiring, planning, training, etc.
However, to be an effective manager, you must also be an effective leader.
Does all of that make sense?
One of the big reasons we have leadership vs. management clichés and memes is that people don’t realize what leadership is, how important it is, and that managers need leadership skills.
Because of that, many are put into management positions just assuming they will be able to do the job, and they aren’t’ training on how to lead.
That’s one of the big reasons we have so many bad bosses.
So what are the dangers of these clichés, and how do they get it wrong?
They continue the misrepresentation and confusion about leadership and management
