⚔️ 👩🏽‍🤝‍👨🏾 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩 The obvious difference between a leader and a manager 🆘 😱 💓

Who are you: a leader or a manager?

Some often take leaders for managers - and vice versa. However, these concepts are completely different: if you cope with the role of a manager, this does not mean that you can be a leader. And vice versa: not all leaders can effectively manage people and resources.

Leaders are those who define a common vision and make others believe in it. But the manager is just the one who shapes the process of implementing the vision set forth by the leader. In this article, I will explain in detail the difference between these roles and how they can interact for the common good.

The leader has a vision, the manager has short-term goals

The leader sees the most general picture - and sometimes is its author. Leaders set sail and set directions in which the future moves. They give rest to enthusiasm and inspire with their idea, make them strive to realize it. Leaders kindle in the hearts of people the desire to overcome difficulties and reach the heights.

Managers develop a detailed plan for achieving this vision and monitor the implementation of the plan. They focus on creating suitable conditions, attracting the right specialists, organizing daily work and the managerial aspects of achieving a common goal. Managers monitor the organization and optimization of processes, set short-term goals, which, in their view, can be achieved quickly with the resources that are.

Translated to Alconost

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Leaders are capable of destroying generally accepted norms; they cause changes and encourage others to follow themselves. Typically, such people have a restless mind, which makes them constantly strive for more and improve the world around them. They are not afraid to take risks and consider failure to be part of the process - they take risks again and again, even if they know that they can fail again. Leaders do not stop until they have completed their plan.

On the shoulders of managers lies the task of creating a reliable plan, which they will be happy to adhere to. If they see that the plan should work, they will try to implement it. Managers usually do not want to take risks: they assess risks, potential damage and look for ways to prevent it or mitigate the consequences. They solve the emerging problems.

In the organization, managers do not allow employees to conflict: they appoint people with similar views and perceptions on one shift or in one department. The manager’s goal is to assemble a team that works smoothly, without conflicts and unplanned risks. A leader would have acted completely differently.

The leader will encourage diversity in the team and will risk uniting employees with different views, perceptions and philosophies - not with the goal of ensuring coordinated work, but to gather a good harvest of diverse ideas.

However, there are managers who are willing to take risks - they may well be good leaders already in the process.

Photo - Miguel Á. Padriñán , Pexels Playground

The leader's task is a long-term vision. Managers think about short-term goals.

True leaders see a long-term goal and strive to achieve it, despite failures and the absence of any other incentives.

The long-term goal for them is not necessarily the most convenient. But leaders are able to see how its achievement will help people, therefore, at the very beginning it is not required that others share it. And having already decided on a goal, they strive to make others also see it and rally for its achievement.

Leaders are often pleasant people, attractive people, they can empathize, they can understand the point of view of another person and take their place.

Managers work with short-term goals that must be consistent with the long-term vision of the leader.

These goals are small but important steps towards translating a long-term vision into reality. They are specific, time-ordered, measurable and consistent with the main goal or long-term vision.

Managers monitor the progress of work and ensure the availability of resources necessary to achieve these goals on time. As soon as the first short-term goal is achieved, they need to identify a new one, which is one step closer to the main goal.

Leaders value relationships; processes are important for managers

As I already said, people care about leaders, relationships are important for them, and first of all, with project participants, employees and key people who are needed to establish relationships that will help spread the vision of the future.

Leaders know who they need in order to realize a certain idea. They establish the necessary connections and gain trust among people who, in their opinion, will help realize their vision.

The leader focuses on the results, and the manager focuses more on the process. Managers love systems that make everything work. They are more interested in indicators and analytics - because in this way they can be sure that each stage of the process works to achieve a short-term goal. The role of the manager is to work with the team and monitor how the movement is moving towards a common goal.

Leaders are interested in personal growth - managers evaluate existing skills

Leaders are constantly striving for self-improvement - in all possible ways. It seems to them that if they don’t know something, they will be left behind - therefore, for their own sake, they need to develop. Leaders are interested in how to expand their stock of knowledge and experience. They want to change the world, and for this they need to come up with something new - they don’t have enough of what they already have, they challenge the current state of things.

Managers quantify existing skills that have been tested in practice, develop measures to evaluate them and possible ways to improve them. They introduce advanced experience and apply it to their own skills - and thus develop.

Which is also good: managers, as you can see, also want to improve themselves and develop their subordinates. However, the best practices adopted by them are the result of the work of leaders, which will not necessarily be applicable to other people. That is why leaders are constantly looking for ways to develop and improve that are suitable for their followers and managers.

A leader is a mentor, a manager is a manager

Leaders teach others, equal to them. They give freedom to make decisions and make choices, because they are sure that their employees will cope with this. Leaders trust their people and help them reach their potential.

Leaders do not say what and how to do it - they teach and provide an opportunity to act independently, while opening up new approaches and solutions.

Managers maintain order in the team. They are more focused on the distribution of tasks, determining the method of their implementation, as well as on setting performance indicators. Managers indicate what and how to do is an important job, thanks to which the actions of the team remain in line with the achievement of the short-term goal.

The leader has followers, the manager has employees

The leader is followed if they believe that this will help self-development and lead to the realization of their own goals, which are usually associated with the goals of the leader.

We follow the leaders because we believe in them, and not because they expect or demand from us.

Leaders form a circle of followers who embody their vision. Perhaps this is the result of an innate ability to attract people to their path and ignite the desire to realize a certain idea in them. Leaders such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg are not respected for their wealth, but for the ideals that they convey to people.

They pushed others to use technologies that make life easier, and inspired a lot of people to realize their goals. Therefore, when they talk about something, they listen to them - not because they are louder than the others, but because they really have something to say. For leaders, the most important thing is people.

Managers deal with employees whose actions need to be constantly monitored and see people as a set of skills and performance indicators plotted on an organizational chart. This chart reflects the areas of responsibility and tasks of employees who need to indicate what and how to do. Subordinate managers carry out what should be achieved now, and not in the future.

Leaders do not associate people with positions, social status or employer - they perceive them as individuals, each of which has a unique potential, character and ability that can help in realizing the leader’s vision.

Leaders deserve respect - managers seek recognition

Leaders deserve respect by setting an example by their own actions, which are followed by certain intentions and visions - which is why they are followed. Respect is the result of not only believing in something concrete, but also of what they do and how they live their lives: Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela are some of the most respected leaders of our time.

They have earned the respect of people, embodying the vision and ideals that, in their opinion, worked for the common good. The leader does not need to be in a certain place to follow his ideals - the thoughts and visions of the great ones remain among people, and they bring them to life, teach them the younger generation. And this is the highest form of respect that a leader can expect.

Managers by their nature tend to evaluate everything in numbers, so they seek recognition of their own efforts, seek confirmation of the correctness of the work performed. When it seems to the manager that the set goals have been achieved, he needs to determine how quickly this was possible. Therefore, economists and analysts become good managers.

Conclusion

Rarely is one person an outstanding leader and a good manager at the same time. But if the organization has one and the other, it is in good hands. Leadership and team management are completely different tasks, but their combination can serve as the key to success.

We must recognize the importance of both roles and understand that the leader and manager individually will not be able to work successfully. An organization needs both one who is able to predict the future, and one who can draw up a plan to achieve this future.

An effective leader will be one who realizes the need to work with a manager. A good manager will be someone who understands the importance of the role of a visionary leader. Combining the efforts of these two allows you to create a cohesive team that will work in unison in order to achieve a common goal.

About the translator

The article was translated by Alconost.

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The obvious difference between a leader and a manager