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How are Leading and Managing different?

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This is a topic of frequent debate in classrooms and boardrooms around the country. While the two are not interchangeable, it is possible to find the best qualities of both in the same individual. Leading others is more like a process, which relies upon passion, heart and even personal charisma to enlist followers. Managing others, however, typically involves controlling and implementing activities such as budgets, inventory and staffing.

While the best managers make the greatest leaders, managing is subservient to leading. Leading others doesn’t have to happen only in a boardroom, it can also happen on the production line. Both the positive and negative influences of leadership exist throughout all levels of an organization, whereas management typically exists only on a supervisory level. This universal quality of leadership is what makes it so unique. There are far more leaders in an organization than there are managers.

Another difference between leaders and managers is how they get others to follow them. Managing others usually entails having company-bestowed authority. Employees basically work for managers and carry out instructions and duties as required – or risk dismissal due to insubordination. Leaders, however, are keen to build alliances with individuals, showing how following them will benefit them in the end. That is not to say that managers don’t rely on trust and inspiration as motivators, too. It simply means that leaders are not necessarily in an authoritative position which requires others to follow their instructions.

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