The difference between Leadership and Management opportunities
Over the years I’ve had a number of people come to me for advice on becoming a leader or a manager (often using these interchangeably in our conversations). I have had the good fortune of working for a number of excellent leaders and managers. Surprisingly they all have very different approaches. Some were very technical and could build a vision and dive deep into coding and configuring. Others were on the other end of the spectrum and focused on helping get the tools we needed, securing priority from teams we depended on, and clearing roadblocks. They shaped my definitions of Leadership and Management. I’ve borrowed from those experiences to define my own management style.
Leadership and Management describe separate but overlapping concepts. This has caused Management to be perceived as a subset or a lesser form of Leadership… which I believe is incorrect. Having one doesn’t mean you have the other. However, to be the ideal manager you should be a good leader. But the opposite isn’t necessarily true but often is. Language is imprecise and when there is a long history of using terms interchangeably this compounds the issue. This chart highlights some of the approach differences. But remember the same person can be both a leader and a manager at different times.
Originally published at https://marketingoptimized.wixsite.com on March 7, 2021.
