Leadership Skills Versus Management Skills

Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard gave an excellent definition regarding management and leadership in their book, “Management of Organizational Behavior”, which help us better understand the qualifications of leadership skills:

· Management is working with and through people and groups to accomplish organizational goals.

Management Skills

· Leadership is influencing human behavior, regardless of the goal.

Leadership Skills Versus Management Skills

John P. Kotter, in his article “What Leaders Really Do” (Harvard Business Review), gave equally interesting definition which shed a different insight on leadership skills:

· Management is about coping with complexity; it brings order and predictability to a situation. But that is no longer enough: to succeed, companies must be able to adapt to change.

· Leadership is about learning how to cope with rapid change.

The difference between managers and leaders

Kotter spells out three basic differences between leaders and managers:

1. Managers plan and budget. Leaders set direction. 2. Managers organize and staff. Leaders align people by communicating their vision at all levels. 3. Managers provide control and solve problems. Leaders provide motivation and inspiration.

The difference between management and leadership

The distinction between management and leadership skills can be summarized briefly as follows:

· Management is about exercising control. It is about planning, rewarding and directing people, training the employees, maintaining systems and procedures, monitoring the schedules, and nurturing coordination among the employees. Management skills focus to ensure that systems would not break down and companies operate efficiently.

· Leadership is about managing change. It is about formulating and communicating vision, inspiring and empowering people, coaching the employees, thinking about possibilities, looking for opportunities, and cultivating synergy among the employees. Leadership skills focus to ensure that companies have direction or growth.

Leadership Skills Versus Management Skills