by Mitch Mccrimmon

Created on: December 26, 2006   Last Updated: May 18, 2007

Are you a leader or a manager? Leadership means promoting new directions. Management means executing existing directions. These definitions are purely functional - they refer to what leaders and managers are meant to do. Definitions that refer to style or personality simply don't work. For example, if we say that leaders must be charismatic or inspiring, we are wrong because there are too many examples of leaders who are quiet or simply able to sway people by citing hard facts and evidence. Also, leadership is not a position or role. It is something that can be shown by all employees. For example, when you champion a new idea to your boss for a better product or process, you are showing leadership upwards. Such leadership comes to an end once your boss buys your idea. This means that leadership can't be defined so that it implies managing a team or getting things done through people.

Consider a different example. When Martin Luther King demonstrated against segregation on buses in Montgomery, Alabama, he showed leadership to his followers on the street but he also showed leadership to the US government. His leadership to the latter was successful when the Supreme Court ruled such segregation unconstitutional. Notice that King had nothing to do with implementing the change in policy that he was promoting. He did not manage any part of the US government. This is, therefore, an instance of leadership that is bottom-up or from the sidelines. The key point here is that, if leadership can be shown from the sidelines or bottom-up, then it cannot be defined so as to imply managing people. This insight shows us how, finally, to differentiate between leadership and management.

But to make this view credible, we also need to construct a viable concept of management. In the late 70's management was thrown in the trash after the Japanese commercial success in the US. Everyone called for an end to management, for leaders to replace managers. The latter were seen as controlling and mechanistic. The truth is that a scapegoat was needed and management was it. Today, we need a more enlightened concept of management, one that portrays managers as empowering, facilitative and as good coaches. This means that leaders sell the tickets for the journey while managers drive the bus to the destination. Still, if the passengers object to the journey enroute an occasional injection of leadership may be required to resell the journey. Bottom line: management is just as important as leadership.

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