The distinction between managers vs. leaders often sparks lively debates and a flood of opinions. But at its core, this comparison can be misleading. Managers and leaders are not inherently opposing forces or mutually exclusive. Both managers and leaders work within structures, have responsibilities, and are interested in accomplishing goals and meeting the needs of their jobs. In a world that often pits these two against each other, it’s essential to step back and consider the nuances: a manager can be a leader, and a leader doesn’t always need to be a manager. This article explores both, debunks common misconceptions, and explains how these skill sets complement rather than contradict each other.
Managers and Leaders – What are They?
Let’s start with some basics.
Manager:
- A person becomes a manager by accepting a job or role as a manager.
- Managers manage something (ideally doing it with continuous improvement in mind).
- Managers manage people, processes, products, projects, etc.
- The definition of their job includes managing whatever they were hired to manage.
- Managers may use various skills to accomplish their jobs, including management skills and leadership skills (which would make them leaders).
- There are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ managers.
Leader:
- A person becomes a leader by utilizing leadership skills (ideally, a leader focuses on creating an environment where people can thrive and deliver results over time).
- Leaders may or may not manage anything (they don’t need to be managers). However, many leaders are managers. They have a formal responsibility to manage something.
Leaders are not unicorns! - Leaders may lead people, processes, products, or projects (if they are “in charge” of any of these, they are likely managers as well).
- The definition of their job can vary dramatically because anyone can be a leader if they utilize leadership skills (even individual contributors).
- Leaders may use various skills to accomplish their jobs, including leadership skills.
- There are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ leaders.
So, a core difference is that one is a job or role, and the other is more of a skill set. However, the skills may overlap. Often, when people believe a manager is doing a good job, they will call them a leader. Some job titles include the word leader (e.g., team leader), and some people are called leaders but are not creating any environment where people are thriving and delivering results. This goes to the points above that there are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ managers and leaders. There are probably some tactics or approaches that everyone would agree are good or bad—However, some approaches may work better or worse for some people.
Manager VS. Leader
We see these terms: manager and leader often pitted against each other, which is a pointless distraction. Because they are not the same thing, it seems a bit absurd to compare them. You can find thousands of articles and images of managers vs. leaders. They generally say a manager does bad, simple, robotic, and shortsighted things. A leader is an idealistic guru who makes everyone feel great and energetic. They bring ideas and joy to the world, and of course, they are good. Go ahead, Google away, and the silliness starts to emerge. Here are some ‘gems’ from an indeed.com article (link):
- “Another distinction between leader vs. manager is that leaders focus on ideas, and managers focus on processes.”
- “Generally, managers are more concerned with the status quo.”
- “Managers don’t achieve goals by inspiring or motivating team members.”
According to this article (and many others), a manager would not have ideas, be less concerned with improvement, and never achieve goals by inspiring people. How many of you are managers who do those things? How many of you have worked with managers who do those things? The problem is that people attempt to compare two different things. In this article, they confuse the two repeatedly, implying that an executive is a leader and not a manager (vs. ideally both). They finally point out the difference between a job and a skill (way into the article), but why not start with that and write an article based on that?
Managers are frequently disregarded as a relic of the past and seen as unnecessary. Organizations are pretty far from where they can transition all management-related jobs to teams. However, there are organizations where the focus is changing. Some managers focus more on developing people
and less on assigning and tracking tasks. This can happen as teams become more self-organizing. As teams take on more ownership of the work, this allows for a shift that can eliminate waste.
Management is not, by its existence, bad (or evil). You may have experienced a ‘bad manager,’ but if you step back and look at what was ‘bad,’ you might realize that the person was good and doing their best at the time. Perhaps they were following policies or the cultural norm. That does not excuse it, but if they had the opportunity to change or could see options to improve, would they? Consider who was helping this ‘bad manager’ improve (was there anyone?).
While a leader may or may not be a manager, we generally expect managers to be leaders. We promote them and say, “Good luck!” Managers are often promoted because they have expertise in the business area they now manage. That makes it easy to jump in and offer too much advice or tell everyone what to do. Then, we are surprised when they struggle. It is a sad state of affairs, especially when we don’t train managers with leadership skills (or even management skills)!
Now What?
Ultimately, organizations thrive when managers embrace leadership skills and leaders are not held up like some weird ‘prized unicorn.’ The false dichotomy of “managers vs. leaders” does little to improve our understanding of performance in either role. Instead, it’s time to focus on equipping managers with leadership capabilities and the skills they need to manage and lead. It is time to stop just bad-mouthing managers as a group or saying, “Be leaders.” This is not improving anything!
Some people don’t seem to want to improve. My experience is that most people are open to improvement if the right person approaches them in the right way. This is very challenging, however, since the people experiencing the problems are often ‘not the right person.’
- Consider escalation if this is causing problems with your delivery for the company or hurting the company in general. You could escalate up the chain or to HR. Be sure to consider the potential drawbacks of this approach.
- Evaluate whether the company, department, and job are the right fit for you. Sometimes, you have to make a tough decision about what works best for you, given all the elements of the situation.
- Try some of the options below first. . .
Do you know a manager or leader who is not doing an effective job on something but seems to want to improve? How can you help them?
- Are they open to authentic feedback? Are you ready to give it?
- Can the root cause of the ineffective tactics or approaches be determined? Could you discuss better ways to target these?
- Are they open to in-depth workshops to learn new and apply new skills?
- Are there others in the organization you can ask to help you? (People who know the person well or peers you can ask.)
- Are they open to doing a 360-degree assessment that uncovers issues and provides a way to improve?
- What control do you have that you can change? Communication, styles, approaches? There are often at least a few things, even in very challenging situations.
What is your organization doing to help people (leaders and managers are people, too) improve, grow, and develop? What are you doing?
