While management and leadership are related and often treated as the same, their central functions are different. Managers clearly provide some leadership, and leaders obviously perform some management.
However, there are unique functions performed by leaders that are not performed by managers. My observation over the past forty years ... is that we develop a lot of good managers, but very few leaders.
Let me explain the difference in functions that they perform:
- A manager takes care of where you are; a leader takes you to a new place.
- A manager is concerned with doing things right; a leader is concerned with doing the right things.
- A manager deals with complexity; a leader deals with uncertainty.
- A manager creates policies; a leader establishes principles.
- A manager sees and hears what is going on; a leader hears when there is no sound and sees when there is no light.
- A manager finds answers and solutions; a leader formulates the questions and identifies the problems.
- James E. Colvard
from "Systems Engineering Newsletter, June 2017, Project Performance International, PO Box 2385, Ringwood North Victoria, 3134, Australia
