Failing to understand their distinct differences, most people confuse leadership with management.
Leadership is simply the ability to have people follow you. Someone with natural leadership abilities can lead us and we follow. Such leadership abilities are God-given. They cannot be taught.
Management is the ability to get things done through and with other people according to some set of predetermined values, deliverables, and dates. While the qualities that make an exceptional Manager can be God given, most often management abilities are taught to us early on by our parents, and by life experience.
A natural born leader usually must learn to manage (taught by their parents or life experience) just as everyone else does. And contrary to popular conviction, some leaders never learn to be effective managers.
Natural leadership abilities and natural management skills are almost equally rare. However, finding the combination of these two qualities in one person is truly singular. Your organization will not be filled with them, in fact, lucky to have any.
Understanding the distinctions between leaders and managers has many far-reaching implications for an organization, most particularly in planning and staffing, training and development and certainly in succession planning. |
