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Leadership Vs Management
"Lead subordinates, Manage projects "
Webster dictionary defines the two words as below:Lead: to guide on a way especially by going in advance; to direct on a course or in a direction
Manage: to handle or direct with a degree of skill; to make and keep compliant

The core differences

Although one can draw a long list of differentiating factors between management and
leadership, I consider that there only only few core differences and rest are all derivatives.
1. Leadership is Synthesis, Management is Analysis : In general, analysis is defined as
the procedure by which we break down an intellectual or substantial whole into parts or
components. Synthesis is defined as the opposite procedure: to combine separate
elements or components in order to form a coherent whole.Every synthesis is built upon
the results of a preceding analysis, and every analysis requires a subsequent synthesis in
order to verify and correct its results.

A leader request his managers to provide him with status, issues and other vital
statistics for each of the managed sub-division. The leader than puts all the data on the
table and then tries to synthesis them into a fundamental statement followed by a direction
or vision for the entire set of problems. Then he hands over his vision to each manager
who then tries to analyze the divisions status with leader's vision and then formulates plans
to address them. In a nutshell, synthesis involves working with abstract concepts while
analysis deals with details.
2. Leadership has long-term impact, management has short-term goals: Leader's
decisions impact the future of the organization, they bring vision, they motivate the
organization towards a goal. The effect of their vision can only be measured over
substantial period, they can either make or break an organization. Manager's role is more
about managing day-to-day activities, supervising subordinate staff, get the tasks
completed, measure and report on performance and reward. Hence their effectiveness can
impact how the organization performs in a quarter, half or whole year.
3. Leadership is an intention of climbing to next level, management is the process of
efficiently executing the plan: This is certainly the most fundamental difference. The
creative energy of defining the next big thing itself is inspirational for the organization, it
brings meaning to the work of employees. Management on the other hand is more focused
on getting the work done efficiently, although in reality it may loose the efficiency part.
Hence management is more about creating several processes and tracking the progress of
various functions across the organization. The entire management doctrine often becomes
too mechanical and their lack of employee concern often makes them target of break room
gossips.

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Leadership and management factors in organization hierarchy

Quite often an organization often uses the nomenclature of leadership and management
interchangeably, perhaps because the two job functions overlap one another and do not have a
clear demarcation between them. Both roles are very much tied to human interactions and thus
personalities and traits are essential requirements. In any organization, both leadership and
management exists at every level of management, however the amount of each varies
according to the management hierarchy.

A CEO of an organization has more of a leadership task to provide vision to the company and
plan to achieve it, while a project managers leadership rarely goes beyond determining what
the next project should be.
Leadership within the organization also depends upon how much it allows for leadership in a
particular role'. As the figure suggests that the ratio of leadership to management is much seen
in higher management than in line management or supervisory roles.

Importance of the difference

Why is it important to understand the difference between the two? How does it matter?
These are the most common questions that strikes everyone's mind. The importance is
related to the career growth of an individual aspiring to step up in the management
ladder of the organization. A successful manager or supervisor does not guarantee the same
success in the higher levels of the organization hierarchy, fundamentally because the amount of
leadership role increases.
Do you lead or do you manage? The motive of this article is essentially to help the reader
discover his own strengths & weakness and then take appropriate actions.

Summary of differences

Leadership

Create a vision

Management

Concentrate on doing things

efficiently
Leaders have followers
Managers have subordinates
Leaders are inspirational and
Managers are productive and
charismatic
effective
Manage the changes, external or Manage the complexity of tasks
internal.
and the organization structure.
Leaders empower followers
Managers control subordinates
People are lead
Projects are manged
Align the organization to the
Organize teams, allocate
vision
resources, build & execute plans
to achieve the objectives.
Synthesis, put together all the
Analyzes the issues by breaking
issues and solve them holistically ( them into smaller problems and
bottom-up approach)
then solve each of them (top-down
approach)

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Take the Lead Vs Manage Questionnaire

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