Often, people confuse leadership with management and vice-versa. Most non-professionals believe both are synonymous with each other. But practically, they are distinct concepts. Despite certain similarities, much dissimilarity draws a line of distinction between the two.
While the concept of management has been present in workplaces, the concept of leadership has gained popularity in professional workplaces over the last few years. As a result, more companies are keen to invest in both leadership training and styles. Read on to know more about how leadership and management differ from one another.
What is leadership?
Leadership is a must-have skill in the team leaders of a business organization. By virtue of this ability, a team leader influences and guides members of their team. The leadership skills of a team leader inspire confidence among team members. As a consequence of it, they get the motivation to lift their performance and exceed their performance-related expectations.
At present, leadership plays a vital role in most business organizations. It provides the requisite tools and knowledge to the employees to achieve the objectives of the company for which they work. For this reason, business firms do not shy away from investing in leadership training and styles.
Leadership professionals perform certain defined functions in companies. These include setting up a company’s business goals, attaining them, articulating a vision with clarity, and making informed business decisions for the benefit of the company under which leadership professionals work.
Qualities of a leader
In a company, a leader performs several roles. However, their primary role is to set an objective and inspire the team members working under them to achieve it. But acting like a boss is not all that is expected out of leaders. They should be patient listeners, should value the opinion of their team members, be empathetic towards them and possess multiple qualities that a leader has. To achieve this objective, a professional who undertakes the role of leadership must possess the following qualities:
- Levelheadedness
- Teamwork
- Ability to empower others
- The ability to think innovatively and with creativity
- Management skills
- Strong communication skills
- Self-confidence
Leadership styles
Leadership professionals come across different kinds of situations. They need to adopt distinct approaches and think out of the box to handle them. As such, they display different leadership styles. Some common leadership styles of leaders include the following:
- Transformational and situational
- Pacesetting style
- Commanding style
- Innovative style
- Democratic style
- Authoritative style
- Affiliative style
- Coercive style
Leadership professionals undergo rigorous leadership training to use these styles. They analyze a situation and choose a leadership style accordingly.
What is management?
In layman’s language, the term management means managing or supervising a group of people. Business organizations hire managers or supervisors to streamline the operations of staff members. It also helps business organizations effectively manage their employees and monitor their performance.
Though managers are also responsible for driving the productivity of employees working under them, they have a broader role in comparison to team leaders.
Leadership vs. management
The terms leadership and management have certain fundamental differences. While the former involves leading the employees of an organization, the latter involves managing or arranging the employees and assets of a business organization. Another difference between both the terms becomes apparent when you consider the element of individual attention.
Leadership is centered on the individual attention of team members. It primarily focuses on the enhancement of the performance of each team member than anything else. During the leadership training phase, professionals are trained for it.
On the other hand, management primarily focuses on the operational aspects and the assets of an organization more than on individual team members. Even managers who are assigned the responsibility of managing employees pay meticulous attention to the collective performance of employees.
Final thoughts
Leadership and management may appear to be similar terms on the surface. But in reality, they are distinct from one another. If you have ever wondered how they differ from one another, the aforementioned aspects of leadership, which constitute a part of leadership training, will help you differentiate it from management.
