To You, What’s The Difference Between a Manager and a Leader?

[JeffAltmanCoach]

SUMMARY

So today’s question is “To you, what’s the difference between a leader and a manager?”

So, you know I did a Google search just to get their definition. They even have this boxed apart from the search results. The main difference between leaders and managers is that leaders have people follow them while managers have people who work for them. Then, they talk about a business owner in that they need to be a leader and a manager.

Now I am going to take that a little bit further and talk in terms of hello a manager it is someone who controls activities that requires people to conform to certain behaviors. A leader is someone who inspires individuals to follow them so that a leader is someone who may set the vision. The manager is going to be the individual who’s staring at every bit of minutae that they do. . . That’s really a micromanager.

They’re are going to be watching their activities to make sure there’s conformity. The leader may say, “You know, this is the result I want to get to. This is where I want to go. This is where we, as an organization, need to get to,” and then draw out from people how they think the group can get there or how they think the organization can there. And by doing this, inspire faith, fidelity, belief that this is a person that can be trusted because they are motivated to help.

So, again, to me the leadership quality, yes, involves following but there’s a way to follow. It’s not by dictating (although, at certain points, you may have to manage). But, the leadership quality involves a desire to follow this person because you trust them and believe in them. When you’re asked this or in interview, generally, this is asked of managerial or executive candidates, not the staff individuals.

And you know they’re looking for examples of leadership here. They may also want to see that she could manage the process too. But here you need to be prepared with leadership examples that tell your story, that affirm how people joined with you. and went to hell and beyond to get to them.

So I hope you follow this advice. Emphasize leadership skills though don’t neglect the the management part because at the end of the day, organizations may like to hire visionaries and I will use Steve Jobs as an example. The man was and incredible visionary. He also, at the end of the day, delivered on what the vision was. It involved managing process.

So, again, I think in terms of both. Don’t neglect one for the other; then you’ll tend to lose.

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