Leadership vs Management: What’s the Difference? (The Real Answer)

What’s the difference between a manager and a leader?

If you are like me, you’ve heard a lot of different explanations.  

You’ve also likely even seen a lot of those memes and cliches that try to tell you the difference between the two (that often show management as being super terrible and evil (the horrors).

Truth is, most of those aren’t very accurate – it’s just that many managers aren’t managing as they should (we’ll get to that later).

So what is the difference between leadership vs management? The best definition I’ve heard comes from Julie Zhuo’s book, The Making of a Manager. To paraphrase (and add some of my own), the difference is:

Leadership is a skill (or set of skills and behaviors and mentalities), and management is a position. You don’t need a position to be a leader, but you can’t be a great manager without also being a great leader.

Let’s dive into this a little bit more.

Leadership is a skill (or set of skills)

Sometimes people think leadership is something you are born with or not. You either have the ability, or you don’t.

That’s just not true. Leadership is just a set of skills and mentalities and behaviors that anyone can learn and do if they want to.

I like how Simon