Are you a leader or a manager or are you both? Look at the following lists of words – which ones would you associate with leading and leadership and which ones with managing and management?
Giving responsibility to others, reporting, monitoring, team-building, having courage,
developing talent, budgeting, determining direction, measuring progress, coaching for performance, managing discipline, inspiring others, ensuring adherence to policies and procedures.
You may have associated the following words with managing and management:
reporting, monitoring, budgeting, measuring progress, ensuring adherence to policies and procedures, managing discipline
You may therefore have associated these words with leading and leadership:
team-building, having courage, giving responsibility to others, determining direction, inspiring others, developing talent, coaching for performance
Management is generally concerned with the here and now day to day operational management of the business. It is concerned with people and processes and getting things done efficiently and effectively in order to meet the current requirements of customers, clients and stakeholders. Words such as ‘reporting, monitoring, budgeting, measuring’, typify management activities.
Leadership however is different. It is partly about today’s business, but it is very much about tomorrow’s business – how the business needs to change to meet the changing needs of its marketplace, customers and employees.
Leadership is a tougher challenge as it requires people to take risks, think creatively and act courageously. For example it requires clear communication of the direction the business is going and how it will get there. Words such as ‘having courage, giving responsibility to others, determining direction, inspiring others’ describe leadership activities.
Leadership is a very different role to management; however for a business to be successful both sets of skills need to co-exist. While short term business requirements (e.g. satisfying customers) must be met every day, these have to be balanced with the longer term requirements of the business, such as improving performance and developing talent. Managing your talent today will yield the leaders of tomorrow – our Managing Talent Course is designed for experienced people managers who have responsibility for maximising the calibre and quality of their staff to create a high performance culture and ensure a competitive advantage for their organisation.