Leaders and managers are almost identical, except one is an ability, and the other is just discipline. Leadership is a skill, and someone who possesses the power is called a leader. Management is a profession and someone who practices that discipline is named a manager.
Leaders and managers have a significant role in any organization; leaders encourage, inspire, and influence their team to work willingly and attain all company objectives. On the other hand, a manager is an essential link between the company and its stakeholders.
As a business owner, your main objective behind running a business should be growing. How do you go about determining the actual meaning of growth, then? How do you measure if you run a successful business or not? What is it that you need to do to grow your business? And most importantly, does a manager or leader help a business grow? In all honesty, you need to be both to reach your goals.
Critical Differences Between Leaders and Managers
The chief difference between a leader and a manager is that a leader has people who follow him, while a manager has people who work for them. If you wish to become a successful business owner, you need to be both but watch it, not confuse yourself. You must be a strong leader and a manager to get your team on board to follow you toward their vision of success.
To have a closer look at the two, here is a list of key differences between a manager and a leader
- A leader influences and inspires his team to achieve a goal. A manager, on the other hand, is someone who manages the entire organization.
- A leader is someone who sets directions, and a manager plans details.
- A leader possesses the quality of foresightedness, while a manager uses his intelligence.
- A leader has followers, and as for the manager, he has employees.
- A manager makes decisions while a leader facilitates them.
- Leaders promote change; managers react to the change.
- Leaders focus on people and their concerns, while managers focus on procedures and processes.
- A manager organizes people while a leader assigns them.
- A leader believes in their teammates’ growth and development, while a manager aims to accomplish the results.
- Leaders promote change, while a manager implements it if the change seems fit.
Leaders
A leader pushes his people beyond their limits and influences his followers to reach a goal and complete the tasks. A leader has a vision that inspires others in ways that become their vision. Leaders help in making a strategy to get to a specific goal. If you want to be a leader, motivate your teammates or subordinates, create more teams, develop trust among stakeholders, welcome innovation, and much more.
A leader is needed at all levels of any organization to function as a representative of the organization. As a leader, you must encourage the entire team to work together and support them in accomplishing their tasks. It would help if you strived hard to inspire, lead, and allow people to make mistakes.
Managers
A manager manages the organization and is responsible for the direction, planning, organizing, control, and coordination. They get their work done by other employees and have the sense of superiority and authority to hire and fire people.
There are several types of managers, like top-level managers, project managers, functional managers, and general managers. Their roles depend on their work nature; for instance, a top-level manager is responsible for its mission and vision. Project managers accomplish specific projects, while the general manager manages various activities performed in the business.
Overall
Anyone can be a manager, but not every manager is a leader. You do not have to get to a position to become a leader. A leader inspires and encourages; you can bet that someone by simply being a collaborator.
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