Are you looking for a manager or a leader?

A leader’s role is to lead; a manager is to manage work. Is it that simple?

There is an abundance of literature out there that erroneously suggest that these two terms can often be used interchangeably. Perhaps, these authors are confusing the personality traits required of a leader or manager with their roles and responsibilities and a person’s management styles with their expertise and skills. This may be why it is difficult to find good leaders when people confuse the two roles and many managers project themselves as leaders as it is of a higher status.

Role of a manager

A manager have a clear aim and has to meet recurring performance targets. In some organizations, they evaluate the manager’s performance based on key performance indices (KPI).

The key role of the manager is to control, organize and mobilize the resources of the organization towards a specific aim. This includes resources such as human, financial, properties, plants and so on such that they are used effectively and productively. Given these constraints, the manager has to ensure the smooth and stable operation of his unit. His focus will be inwards rather than outwards unless he is in sales or marketing. The manager is likely to develop plans based on fixed time frames like a month, a year or for a particular event. Any innovation introduced has to be adaptive rather than disruptive as stability is paramount.

Role of a Leader

The leader’s role is much more complicated. One of his primary concern is to ensure that his organization is sustainable in a changing environment. Hence there will be a constant need for the leader to monitor the business environment and to position the organization so it can withstand economic downturns or other crisis while it can exploit new opportunities.The leader also has to provide oversight of the managers under him.

Leaders cannot afford the luxury to be involved in the implementation and service delivery activities. He must facilitate others who can devote their time and energy to these activities. A bad scenario is when he is so involved that he competes for funding for his pet projects and demoralizing others with more deserving projects. This can cause colossal failures as there may be no accountability.

The keywords associated with the leadership would include seeing the big picture, long term planning, human resource development, succession planning, capacity building, facilitating, investment, process improvement, change management, policies development, innovation and so on.

Multiple hats

In a micro-enterprise with limited staffs, the chief executive is the manager who will often be required to double up as a leader. Perhaps he will devote 10% or less of his effort as a leader and the rest as a manager. These are two different hats the person must wear and he should be able to differentiate them and adjust or switch his operating mode. This may also be the reason for the confusion between a manager and a leader.

In large organizations, the senior executive's roles would be more specialized and those in leadership positions would concentrate on leadership issues. The stakes are higher and the impact of the decisions made have far-reaching effects. Here, the senior management may be required to spend 70% or more of their time on leadership functions.

At the national level, the leadership can make or break the country. The leaders cannot afford to be distracted by day-to-day issues of managing work and the other resources. They must be free to focus on bigger and long term issues that affect the sustainability of the nation.

Leadership training

The leadership role is too important to be given to natural born leaders who have not been properly trained and vetted. Leaders of large organizations require a wide range of skills, expertise and personality traits. This would require, among others, having deep understanding and insights of the business of the organization, foresight, and vision, with skills in finance, planning and strategy and human resources. Starting with the right person to be a future leader is important. Grooming is a must. We may not afford the mistakes of the leaders.  

In every age groups, we need leaders and managers to get them organized and direct their energies at some specific aim. Hence there is a need to train young leaders or future leaders. There are now many leadership courses offered. The short courses do not have the business context and therefore should concentrate on the personality traits of leaders and basic skills rather than trying to address technical skills or intractable societal issues such as national unity. It can do more harm than good.

The longer post graduate courses offered by Universities address the specialized skills required by the leaders.

Conclusion

A manager who consider himself a leader may neglect his management duties and not be able to meet his performance targets. Likewise, a leader who neglects his leadership duties and indulges in the activities of a manager could jeopardize the future of the organization. Those wearing two hats need to find the required balance.

With this new perspectives, I hope the reader can find examples of the leaders and managers with misaligned priorities from their personal exposure and hold the individuals accountable. We cannot get the right leaders if we do not know what to expect and demand of them.