Leader Or Manager?

Headnote

Good managers do not always make good leaders

Leadership and management are two very different capabilities which are independent of each other.

Leadership versus Management

Leadership and management are sometimes used to describe the same behaviours but the origins of the words show they are different. The word "management" comes from the Latin word for hand (as does manipulation) and it is about handling things, whereas the origins of the word "leadership" are more uncertain. Some evidence suggests that it comes from the Old English (prior to the thirteenth century) word meaning a vein of ore, suggesting a streak of some value.1 Some people attribute it to the Indo-European derivation meaning to "cross a threshold", implying self-sacrifice which captures the principle that leadership is altruistic. Or it may come from the Anglo Saxon word leaden meaning "cause to go with".

This simple understanding makes it quite obvious that just because someone is good at management does not mean they are good at leadership, and vice versa. Perhaps unsurprisingly, both theory and research suggests that these two capabilities are oppositely correlated which means the better a manager is then the worse they tend to be as a leader. Practically this warns us that we can manage resources but we have to lead people, and many of our mistakes happen because we try to manage people; in other words, treat them like things!

Leadership is so much more effective than management because leadership increases the motivation and engagement of employees. This makes such a big difference in the workplace because how much employees are "engaged" (feel an emotional bond) to the organisation has been shown in many studies across...