What are the fundamental differences between Leadership and Management? Even though two are used interchangeably in practice, how are they seen in an organization.

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.  

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 manager’s 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

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