Leadership vs. Management

In the year of B-school education that I have gone through, I have attended many a session on the importance of having a person in the team who plays the pivotal role. In many situations, that role has been referred to as a leadership role, and in many other cases, that person has been termed a manager. Both these skills are talked about with respect and awe, and the qualities required for such a person has been listed many a times. So, what exactly the difference between leadership and management, and what is more important??

Over the years, many scholars have drawn inferences from happenings in the political front, and view leadership as undemocratic. In the past, leadership has been considered the misused privilege of the aristocracy, who dominated humankind at that time. This drew the indignation of the academic community, and once the feudal system was abolished and democracy was established, they declared that democracy meant equality, and there is no place for leadership in such a scenario. The learned ones established ‘equality’ as one of the main pillars of democracy. However, what they failed to understand is that in essence, democracy means equality of opportunity and privileges, and not equality of capability.

With the emergence and increased focus on management as a science, the concept of leadership took a further beating. The concept of management gained a lot of attention, and this concept was replacing the concept of leadership as throughout. Even the US army decided to replace leadership with management. The loss in the Vietnam War, in retrospect, has been attributed to this change in systems and functions.

Quoting various management gurus in the USA, “Management is a bottom line focus. How can I best accomplish certain things? Leadership deals with the top line. What are the things that I want to accomplish?” According to Peter Drucker and Warren Brenis, “Management is doing things right, while leadership is about doing the right things. Management efficiency is in climbing the ladder of success, while leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall”

What one needs to understand is that management is one of the major tools that a leader employs while he devises methods of leading the team. Thus, leadership gives direction and purpose to the team, while management ensures effective implementation of what has been decided as actions to reach the objective. One can be a good manager without being a good leader, but the reverse can never be the case.