How does leadership differ from management?
A number of theorists describe leaders as visionaries, whereas managers implement the vision efficiently: “A good manager does things right. A leader does the right things” (Bennis & Goldsmith).
But in practice, the line is often more blurred: managers lead and leaders manage, after all. The Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter tries to draw a functional line between leaders and managers: "Leaders primarily are responsible for establishing an organisational mission, whereas managers primarily are responsible for implementing that mission through others. The intermediate steps - formulating a strategy for the mission and increasing people's commitment toward it - tend to be performed by either leaders or managers".
According to marketing guru Kotler: "Leadership isn't mystical and mysterious. It has nothing to do with having charisma or other exotic personality traits. It's not the province of a chosen few. Nor is leadership necessarily better than management or a replacement for it: rather, leadership and management are two distinctive and complementary activities."
< Previous: Defining leadership and management (cont.)
Next: Characteristics of Inspirational leaders >