Leaders vs Managers – Key Differences and Commonalities

Am I a leader? Or am I a manager? 

How would I characterize myself at this very moment? In this piece, we will take a look at the qualities which characterize each. First, a bit of history. 

Considerable attention was given in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the study and practice of leadership as well as the study and practice of management. However, the terms ‘leader’ and ‘manager’ were generally used interchangeably with leaders and managers considered the same. This was questioned in 1977 in Abraham Zaleznik’s Harvard Business Review article “Managers and Leaders: Are They Different?” 

Zaleznik contended that leaders and managers have different modes of operations, different functions, and even different personality types. He viewed leaders as visionary, personally motivated, active in setting the direction of organizations, and willing to tolerate uncertainty in relationships with employees to develop closer understandings. In contrast, managers were characterized as focused on the necessities of the job, an impersonal commitment to goals, and having relationships with employees geared toward control, maintaining order, and quick resolution of problems. 

Since 1977, the differences in leaders and managers characterized by Zaleznik have been the focus of considerable research with numerous studies conducted to further analyze and characterize differences and commonalities. Some lists specifying leader-manager differences are relatively short while others are more extensive. 

As shown in Tables 1 and 2 and in agreement with Zaleznik, leaders are typically viewed by researchers as visionary, comfortable with risk-taking, and innovative in bringing about change in the organization. They inspire and motivate employees to commit to the vision. They influence others through their personal charisma. Managers, in contrast, are seen as tending to the specifics of getting things done – organizing the staff, executing the plan, solving operational problems, and maintaining order. They seek stability in operations and relate to employees through their position of authority. 

Table 1. Key Differences Between Leaders and Managers

These differences in leader-manager functions are further elaborated by differences in their skill sets. 

Table 2. Skills of Leaders and Managers 

James Kouzes and Barry Posner in their 2017 book The Leadership Challenge identified five essential skills of leadership: inspiring a shared vision, challenging processes, enabling others to act, modeling the way, and celebrating achievements. Algahtani (2014) summarized findings on managers by saying that managers focus on planning, building and directing systems to accomplish organizational goals. Kotter (2011) viewed leadership as the ability to inspire others as well as introducing and implementing change while management copes with the chaos of complexity within organizations. In short, leaders set the vision, and managers execute the processes required to attain the vision. 

Commonalities between leaders and managers are clear in that both clearly require facility in such functions as communicating, delegating, decision-making, problem solving and cultural intelligence. Personal integrity and commitment to organizational goals are a given. Technical skills may also be required by both managers and leaders although this varies by characteristics of the organization. Regardless of attempts to specify differences, the work of managers and leaders is clearly integrated, functions and skills overlap, and the work of both types of individuals is essential to the success of the organization. 

Current Trends 

The above discussion of differences and commonalities in the functions of leaders and managers is increasingly blurred by changes in the corporate environment, including hybrid work schedules, globalization of operations, artificial intelligence, and the development of agile project management structures. 

Hybrid work schedules complicate the interactions of both leaders and managers with employees. Excessive loss of regular contact and interaction may impede the development and maintenance of the relationships needed for trust and open interactions between employees, managers, and leaders as well as for staff development. Williams (2024) notes that while hybrid schedules may offer employee benefits of work-life balance they may also lead to reductions in productivity. He emphasizes that for hybrid structures to work successfully, the organization needs to establish a hybrid schedule that fits the work of the team, provide clear expectations for communications, and structure operations to maximize in-office time. 

Globalization of operations often necessitates enhanced cultural awareness and revision of operations by both leaders and managers. Leaders may be challenged to interact with changes in the external international environments and managers challenged to work to address multi-cultural differences in relationships and operations. 

Agile organizations were introduced in the 2000’s by software and computer companies as a management structure to expedite project development processes and they are now spreading throughout other organizations. Agile organizations are characterized by short-term project development times, rapid response to consumer needs, multiple collaborative teams, and flexibility in management roles among team members. Both management and leadership functions may be shared by team members and change to meet immediate member skills required. Agile companies using team processes such as Scrum (a term borrowed from rugby meaning moving the ball forward) feature having a ‘Scrum Master’ as team leader. Processes and procedures of agile organizations are expected to expand further into mainstream companies in the future. 

Artificial Intelligence. Leaders and managers already use AI systems in their functional roles: leaders for predictive analysis and strategic planning and managers for optimizing use of resources, conducting operations, and maximizing efficiency of processes. The use of AI has already become essential across organizations. 

In summary, the historically separate concepts of the functions of leaders and managers are currently in flux in response to emerging organizational operations and structures and expected to remain so. With increasing complexity of organizations and the use of new technologies, collaborative and close interactions of leaders and managers will become ever more essential. It takes both leaders and managers to run an effective organization. It is very difficult to find both skill sets in one person. If you have both good leadership and good management skill sets, you are a winner!

References 

Algahtani, A. (2014). Are Leadership and Management Different? A Review. Journal of Management Policies and Practices, 2 (3): 71-82. DOI: 10.156-40/jmpp.v2n.3a4 https://jmpp.thebrpi.org/journals/jmpp/Vol_2_No_3_September_2014/4.pdf 

Bellner, B.W. (August 10, 2022). Global Leadership Competencies. Lead Read Today. The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. https://fisher.osu.edu/blogs/leadreadtoday/global-leadership-competencies. 

Gren, L. and Ralph, P. (2022). What Makes Effective Leadership in Agile Software Development Teams? In 44th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE ’22) May 21-29, 2022, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. ACJ New York, NY, USA https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3510003.3510100 

Kotter, J. (2011). What Leaders Really Do. HBR’s 20 Must Reads on Leadership, (pp. 37-55). Harvard Business Review Press. 

Kouzes, J.M. and Posner, B.Z. (2017). The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations. Sixth Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New Jersey. 

Quarterdeck, Ltd. (February 26, 2023) Leadership vs. Management: The Critical Distinction That Drives Organizational Success. Quarterdeck Leadership Seminar. https://quarterdeck.co.uk/articles/are-leadership-and-management-different-a-review 

Scrum Organization. What is Scrum? http://www.scrum.org>learning-series>what-is-scrum 

Williams, D. (February 8, 2024). Creating Structure for Hybrid Teams. Lead Read Today. The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. https://fisher.osu.edu/blogs/leadreadtoday/creating-structure-hybrid-teams 

Zaleznik, A. (January 2004). Managers and Leaders: Are They Different? Harvard Business Review 82(1):74-81. (Reprint from Zaleznik, A. Managers and Leaders: Are They Different? Harvard Business Review, 1977.)