10 Manager and Leader Comparisons

Today's manager is being replaced by someone with strong leadership skills. To keep your current management position or advance your career, you need to understand the differences between the two and which areas you will need to work on. Review this list of ten comparisons to see where you fit today.

1. Direction
Managers supervise, control, and correct. Leaders strategize, inspire, and motivate.

2. Goals
Managers focus on short term goals, plodding through an endless series of internal processes. Leaders think and act like owners, recognizing the importance of long term goals, vision and value added functions.

3. Thinking Style
Managers are satisfied with incremental gains, being just a little better than the competition. They judge success solely by the bottom line. Leaders redefine their markets, constantly searching for new knowledge from new places, new markets, and new customers.

4. Communication
Managers engage in a lot of one-way communication, giving orders or having people report to them. Leaders encourage free flowing interactive communication and are receptive to feedback, both positive and negative.

5. Perspective
Managers prefer specific, functional expertise. Leaders see the interdependencies between functions and processes and endorse a general management perspective.

6. Style
Managers define themselves by perpetual activity, generating transactions, attending meetings, walking factory floors, and so on. Leaders get things done, but also take time to reflect and develop their sixth sense, because they know a well seasoned sixth sense can be more valuable than mounds of data when it comes to making good decisions.

7. Emotion
Managers are analytical and coolly detached. Leaders produce emotional energy. The kind that inspires and motivates people.

8. Faith
Managers are firm believers in Murphy's Law, so they constantly monitor their employees. Leaders maintain a high level of trust and commitment with their people.

9. Openness
Managers need everything proven and take great pride in their ability to say no to ideas that don't meet their standards. Leaders embrace diversity and are highly receptive to ideas and people who are different. They realize that new, young, original, or off the wall ideas could evolve to become the cutting edge solution needed.

10. Feedback
Managers place conscious and unconscious limits on what they are willing to say or listen to. Leaders recognize that clear and honest communication is essential in today's fast paced business world and are open to both positive and negative feedback.

Writers Resource Box