Management or Leadership

Management or Leadership

When is it ‘management’? When is it ‘leadership’?

There is much confusion about these terms. I was talking to a prospective client a few years ago. I was told by the sponsor that the CEO didn’t want the term manager to be used. He wanted his people to be called leaders. This has been on my mind ever since. It seems common practice to use the terms interchangeably.

In the current edition of Harvard Business Review it’s suggested that in the face of the recent institutional breakdown of trust in business, managers are losing legitimacy. To regain public trust, management needs to become a true profession in much the way medicine and law have, argue Khurana and Nohria of Harvard Business School. http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=R0810D

Let’s put it in perspective. Management as we know it has been around 100 or so years, is still evolving and if it is a profession has a lot of catching up to established professions.

Leadership is different. Leadership has been around since the beginning of time. Leadership transcends professions, politics and society.

Leadership is as much an inner journey of self as a set of skills and tools.

Managers are trained. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management

Leaders develop. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership

Management training is for designated managers.

Leadership development is for everyone

Management is applied in the enterprise level.

Leadership is for whole of life, work, family, social, politics, community, education.

Let’s get it clear what we are talking about. Is it management? – or - Is it leadership?

Let’s call it for what it is.