Manager or Leader

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

~ Peter Drucker

Good managers are often – but not always – good leaders. Leaders are not always in management positions, and some leaders who advance to a manager position fall short in their management responsibilities.

So what are the traits of managers versus leaders? And why is it important for students to know the difference?

Leaders

People generally associate leadership with vision, inspiration and motivation. Leaders can rally their followers, employees or teammates around a vision or goal. They are credited with affecting change, thinking outside the box, and taking risks. People also associate leadership with honesty, integrity, determination and setting high standards. Leaders often rise to positions of influence and prominence because of their qualities, but they are not always the one in control.

Managers

A leader can be found in any activity or walk of life, but managers are generally associated with business, projects and activities, rather than causes. Good managers are adept at executing a vision systematically, and directing others. They understand and can coordinate intricate moving parts, keeping on schedule and on budget. Managers are generally promoted to a position of control because of proven management abilities; not because they’ve inspired followers.

Entrepreneurs are often leaders, but not managers. They can innovate, envision and create the excitement necessary for others to invest their time and money. As start-up companies grow, however, they inevitably need good managers to take over day-to-day operations and keep the train on track.

Which Is Better?

Most articles on the difference between a leader and a manager tend to glorify the leader role and diminish (or even disparage) the manager role. It’s important for students to understand that both leaders and managers play an important role in business and in society. Neither one is better than the other, and you don’t have to have the strengths of both to be valuable.

Exercises for the Classroom

Both of the exercises presented here start with a class discussion on the traits of leaders and managers, with a facilitator capturing the key differences on the board. The resulting chart might look like this:

Leader	Manager
Inspires	Plans, Prioritizes
Takes Risks	Communicates Plans
Drives Change	Schedules Work
Creates Positive Emotions	Controls a Budget
Leads by Example	Delegates
Has Passion	Has Control
Has Vision	Creates Stability
Drives for Results and Achievement	Drives to Complete Objectives
Innovates	Tracks Details

Exercise 1 – Divide the room into two teams. Assign one team to Leader and the other to Manager. Ask each team to select the five traits from the list on the board that they consider most important.

The teams’ task is to describe a scenario that illustrates each of their five selected traits, and demonstrates why the trait is valuable – or essential – in that scenario. The underlying objective is to help the students envision these traits in action, and to develop real-life meaning for the words.

Exercise 2 – Devise a short list of scenarios in which both leadership and management qualities are necessary. Divide the class into groups and assign one scenario to each group. The groups’ task is to outline how specific leadership and management traits (both) will come into play in their scenario.

Scenario Examples:

1. Running a business in a highly-competitive field, such as technology
2. Running a country
3. Running a family and household
4. Running a sports team
5. Leading an army
6. Handling a town’s life-threatening emergency situation

Through exercises like these, we hope to help students recognize and nurture their own leadership and management potential.