Leadership vs. Management - The Difference between a Leader and a Manager

The question related to the difference between management and leadership has been asked numerous times and has been answered differently each time. The major difference between leaders and managers is in the way they interact and motivate workers or followers towards an aim or target, and this determines the manner for several other characteristics of how they act.

In some cases, there are people who are both. They work as managers, but they know that they need to motivate people to work by having them follow instead of forcing them to and therefore act like leaders.

Managers Are Given Authority!

Managers have staff working under their authority – except when their designation is voluntary and bestowed as a sign of superiority, in which situation happens that the title is being misapplied and their authority over other people is different than proper leader power. Managers are given authority and power by an organization, and their inferiors are to follow their orders and work accordingly. A manager is the one who says what is to be done, and the worker does this because they will be rewarded or given a specific amount of wage. Managers are given money to do what they do as they also work under someone with higher power. They are usually given a specific time limit to complete their orders and so they pass on the work to other workers working under them.

A research shows interesting results about managers. It shows that managers usually come from a normal family background with a comfortably led life and are therefore reluctant to take risks. They are considered as people who desire happy and smooth sailing. Research also shows that most leaders have some sort of difficulty in their life that they overcame. A few had distressing childhoods, a few faced dilemmas such as dyslexia. This is maybe what gave them the ability to be independent of mind and not having to worry about what others thought, resulting in the confidence for leadership.

Leaders possess Followers!

Leaders seldom have people working under them - not at the time they are actually leading. Many managerial leaders have individuals working under them, for the reason that they also happen to be managers. But at the time they are leading, they give up their authorities and powers to control, because a leader has followers, and followers do so voluntarily.

In the research, managers are shown as being risk reluctant while leaders are the complete opposite. They seem to be risk takers. When targeting their aims and goals, they know that they will stumble upon problems and obstacles that will have to be conquered on the way.

Summarizing the differences we can see that a manager has the essence of stability whereas a Leader has the essence of change. Managers have people working for them while leaders have followers. A major difference is that a manager seeks objectives whereas a leader seeks vision. And perhaps one of the biggest differences between a manager and a leader is that a manager blames his subordinates while a leader takes blames upon himself!