Leadership and Management –
Different Tools for Different Jobs

If you are building a room in your house, you use a variety of types of tools from different disciplines. To pick two, you use carpenter tools and electrician tools. The carpenter tools (hammer, saw) are the most widely recognized, understood and used. The electrician tools (wire stripper, current tester) are less recognized, less understood and less used. There are also cross-over tools (screwdrivers, pliers, tape measure) that are useful in both disciplines. The same person will use both sets of tools to complete the room. The same holds true for running an organization.

Many people and organizations use the terms leadership and management interchangeably. They are not the same. Both, the management and the leadership sets of tools are required for an organization to succeed. They work hand in glove. However, they are separate sets of expertise. In formal organizations, a person at the head of an organization, department or team has the opportunity to exercise both sets of skills. It is important to understand the difference so that you can apply the correct approach to different situations. Some people can execute both very skillfully. Unfortunately, there are more that can not.

You lead people; you manage things.

Leadership is the application of certain skills, attitudes, values and relationships that energize people toward a common destination. It does not require organizational position. So a person with no formal authority (power) can be a leader if they can get people excited to all move toward the same objective. You know them as "informal" leaders.

Manager is a formal position conferred on a person by the organization. The management tools are designed to keep an organization running smoothly and predictably. These skills are well known and include budgets, work design, resource allocation, goal setting, P&P, etc. This tool set does require organizational position and formal authorization. There are a lot of managers who believe that organizational authority (a management tool) is synonymous with leadership. It is not.

Many managers believe that when people are not doing the right things correctly, they need to put out some new rules and then enforce them. For those of you who think this way I simply ask "Does setting a speed limit and having the police stop cars that exceed the limit cause all drivers not to exceed the speed limit?" "How many times have you seen a policeman, slowed down to the speed limit and then, as soon as the cop is out of sight, and the threat of enforcement is past, you resume speeding?" A lot of energy and expense goes into establishing and enforcing the rules. This effort does not work very well on the highway and it does not work very well in organizations either. Yet managers continue to try it. They use a management tool for a leadership activity.

Organizations requires both sets of expertise. They have to work seamlessly. It is not an either/or situation. The effective "boss" needs to be able to reach into his/her tool kit and pull out the tool appropriate to the situation.

Leadership is both a science and an art. The science is the understanding of how and why it works: the communication techniques, the outcomes desired, etc. The art is the magic you create by delivering your own personality and values, through these tactics, to your people. This is similar to artistic painting. Anyone (almost) can be taught the science of mixing paints and how to use a brush. The art is what you choose as a subject to paint and how you add your unique perspective and talent to it.

The leadership task is to set the course and energize the people using relationship power. Reach into your leadership tool box when dealing with people.

The management task is to organize the resources, create the plans, ensure the proper resources are allocated and that the plans are efficiently implemented. Use your management tools when you are dealing in these areas.

You lead people. You manage things. Return to Articles