Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
~ Peter Drucker
During my coaching sessions with people in leadership roles we often times talk about the differences between a manager and a leader.
The biggest difference between these two words is that one is a role (team manager, engineering manager, etc.), whereas the other is more a quality a person has. You can be a manager and have no leadership qualities (you probably are one of those managers no one likes to have) and you can also be a leader without any managerial function (or role) at your company.
So which are the differences between a (bad 1 ) manager and a leader?
Blaming the team
The manager we’ve all learned to dislike is that person that will gladly shift the blame towards the team when things go wrong. A leader on the other hand takes responsibility and tries to learn from the actions taken (under their direction) to avoid these things to happen in the future.
What could I have done differently?
Talking the talk
Managers love the sound of their voice.
A leader on the other hand spends more time listening to what their peers and team have to say. There is a rule of thumb (a silly one, but it actually works) which states that spending 80% of your time listening will help you understand the challenges your teams are facing and will help you perform your duties better.
Telling
The manager will tell you what to do.
Sharing the context of what needs to accomplish, without telling your team how to do it will help them uncover better ways of solving the problem at hand. You hired these people for their skills after all; trust them to do the right thing.
Authoritarian
Most great leaders I know don’t want people to follow them blindly or tell them what to do. They prefer working alongside their teams to achieve their goals.
A leader is constatnly learning from their team, the manager “knows everything”.
Psychological Safety
Managers love to be feared (they will not recognise that, but deep down they love the “respect” that comes with the fear).
Leaders recognise the importance of creating a working environment where psychological safety is a priority. They know that people that feel safe will perform better (and take calculated risks) when they are in an environment that allows them to bring their entire self to it without fear.
Control
Managers love to control the information and will only share on a “to know” basis. Leaders on the other hand will default to transparency (unless the information they have is strictly confidential) with their teams sharing the knowledge.
The manager will tell their people to “go do the thing”, the leader will tell them “let’s go and do that thing together”.
What can we do?
If you are in a position of leadership or you are looking for a promotion you could get in touch with me and we’ll find a way how I can help you thrive.
Footnotes
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In this particular case, when refering to a bad manager, what we really mean to say is a manager with stereotypical managerial behaviours. ↩