5 Most Important Difference between Managers and Leaders are given below:
A good leader may be a poor manager but it helps a manager to be successful if he is a good leader. Warren Bennis and Bert Nanus (1997) suggested that ‘managers do things right, and leaders do the right thing.’ Yet, the terms managers and leaders are used interchangeably. However, leadership and managership are not same. We find the existence of leadership in unorganized groups also. However, managership exists only in organized and structured groups. A manager is more than a leader.
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Due to his positional role, a manager has to organize and control the activities of people towards the accomplishment of objectives. As a manager, one has to perform all functions of management, but as a leader one is more related to the directing part, i.e., influencing people to achieve goals. Therefore, leadership is a part of management and not the whole of management. That is why, we often say ‘All managers are leaders but all leaders are not managers.’
To stretch the debate further, let us examine views of major contributors in this regard. Their main contentions are that leaders and managers vary in their orientation towards goals, conceptions about work, interpersonal style and self-perceptions. W.L. French (1987) while distinguishing between a leader and a manager opined that:
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Leaders … are often dramatic and unpredictable in style. They tend to create an atmosphere of change, ferment even chaos. They are often obsessed by their ideas, which appear as visionary and consequently excite, stimulate and drive other people to work hard to create reality out of fantasy… managers are typically hard-working, analytical, tolerant and fair-minded. They have a strong sense of belonging to the organization, and take great pride in perpetuating and improving the status quo.
Another opposing view states that leadership is just one aspect of what a manager does. Leaders are only involved in influencing subordinates towards the achievement of organizational goals.
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Robert P. Vecchio (1988) pointed out that leadership can exist on a formal or informal basis.
We can summarize such differences between leadership and managership with a quote from John Kotter (1991). It summarizes the points already highlighted in this review of the topic and is a worthy conclusion to the discussion:
Leadership is different from management, but not for the reason most people think. Leadership isn’t mystical and mysterious. It has nothing to do with having Charisma or other exotic personality traits. It’s not the province of a chosen few. Nor is leadership necessarily better than management or a replacement for it. Rather, leadership and management are two distinctive and complementary activities. Both are necessary for success in an increasingly complex and volatile business environment.
Management functions include planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. In order to direct his subordinates, a manager must motivate, communicate, supervize, guide and lead them. Thus, it is in his directing function that a manager becomes responsible for effectively and successfully leading his subordinates.
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Managing can be more effective if those who manage are also the leaders, because leadership can substantially influence the results. Since, a part of manager’s job involves getting things done through the efforts of other people; he will be more successful in the job if he is also a skilful leader. Following are the favourable results that are produced if managers are also good leaders:
(i) The leader guides and directs by eliminating uncertainties as to what should be done, and thus, coordinating individual efforts so as to make them pull in one direction.
(ii) The leader motivates people and integrates individual needs with the needs of the organization.
(iii) The leader represents the group to the outside world and the outside world to the group. Leader is looked upon by the group as a source of information and satisfaction.
Three things provided by the leader, as mentioned above, are also referred to as direction, drive and representation and sufficient to prove that leadership is an essential part of successful management. It is, however, argued that since managers have authority to provide incentives, or has the authority to deprive or otherwise punish people in the organization, the management leadership is more potential than real. Discipline and conformity can be maintained through the hierarchy and the fear of loss of employment.
However, leadership should not be emphasized so as to make it synonymous with management. It will improve the results if the manager is also a skilful leader. However, a leader need not be a good manager as managing involves more than mere leading and a manager can do reasonably well even when he is not a good leader. Leadership, therefore, is better considered as one of the significant prerequisites to managerial effectiveness.
From the above discussions, we can differentiate between management and leadership as follows:
Managers:
1. A manager is more than a leader. Hence, management is a wider term.
2. A manager fits in an organized structure.
3. A manager exercises different functions of management to achieve group goals.
4. Authority of a manager stems from his positional role, i.e., it is delegated from the top.
5. To be a successful manager, the manager has to be a good leader.
Leaders :
1. A leader need not be a manager. Leadership is a narrow term.
2. A leader may be in an informal group also.
3. A leader exerts influence on people, whom he leads, to achieve group goals.
4. A leader earns his authority by virtue of his skills, knowledge and abilities.
5. Leaders need not be managers.