The Difference Between Leadership Skills and Management Skills

I was 22 years old when it finally clicked for me.

Management and leadership are two different things.

For me, this was a total breakthrough.

Why?

Because I'm not a good manager.

Trust me.

I know what good management looks like.

I wasn’t born with it.

All of my management know-how has been hard-fought.

On the other hand, leadership has always made sense to me.

So, when I realized that management and leadership are different.

I was actually relieved.

Now, the reason leadership and management get mixed up is because positions of authority are typically filled with individuals gifted at either management or leadership.

So, people just assume that bosses, leaders, managers, or supervisors are all the same thing.

They’re not.

When it comes to leadership and management, we’re talking about two completely different skill sets.

Understanding the difference between leadership and management skills can unlock a lot for you.

Many of you think you’re a great leader, but you’re actually a great manager.

Many of you think you’re a great manager, but you’re actually a great leader.

In any case, after reading this, you should have a better understanding of the difference between leadership and management skills.

You’ll also have a game plan for how to optimize your natural skills, develop new skills, and organize your team in light of these skills.

The first step to becoming a better leader and manager is actually to know the difference between the two.

Let’s begin by breaking down some of the key differences between leadership skills and management skills.

LEADERSHIP

Has more to do with personal qualities.

This could include your values, character, confidence, or presence.

It’s about WHO you are and how you make others feel.

Leadership skills really don’t have any bearing on how effective you are.

MANAGEMENT

On the other hand, has more to do with effectiveness.

Management is about your competence to execute and implement.

If leadership is about the “Why,” management is about the “How.”

FOCUS

When it comes to focus, leaders are visionaries who set direction; managers are implementers who focus on tasks and systems.

Effective leadership is centered on a vision to guide change.

Whereas managers set out to achieve organizational goals through implementing processes, leaders are more intent on thinking ahead and capitalizing on opportunities.

APPROACH

When it comes to approach, leaders inspire and motivate, developing people; managers coordinate and control, organizing resources.

Leaders think long-term (future possibilities); managers focus on short-term (daily/project goals).

Leaders drive change and innovation; managers maintain continuity and efficiency.

Leaders take risks for growth; managers mitigate risks for stability.

Leaders are typically people-oriented, building culture; managers are process-oriented, ensuring execution.

In the book “On Becoming a Leader,” Warren Bennis shares that while the manager administers, the leader innovates.

While the manager maintains, the leader develops.

While the manager focuses on systems and structure, the leader focuses on people.

Managers pursue goals through coordinated actions and tactical processes, or tasks and activities that unfold in stages to achieve a specific outcome.

Leaders, on the other hand, are more focused on aligning and influencing people.

Another critical difference between management and leadership concerns position and role.

A manager is a role with a defined set of responsibilities.

Fulfilling this managerial role does not make you a leader.

Sure, the best managers are going to be leaders, but they aren’t the same.

Leadership is different.

If you act like a leader, influencing, inspiring, and encouraging others, then you are being a leader.

It’s not a role that you fill, a title you have, or a position you step into.

Leadership is a result of how you act and how that influences others around you.

As you can see, leadership and management are very different.

It’s two completely different skill sets and approaches that are often in contrast to one another.

At times, they're even in opposition to one another.

Now, I’m sure you’re already starting to identify which side you naturally fall in.

Hopefully, it’s clear to you now what the difference is between leadership and management and which one you’re most inclined to.

Let’s take a closer look at what comes naturally to YOU.

If you’re just starting out, you need to identify what you’re naturally gifted at and fan that flame.

Your natural gifts are like muscles; if you don’t use them, they’ll never grow, they’ll atrophy.

What a waste that would be.

So, identify your gift and use it!

If you aren’t currently in a leadership or management position, then maybe check out the resource list I mentioned earlier; it might help prepare you step into that.

But in the meantime, you can still practice leadership and management in other capacities.

For one thing, you can volunteer through a local church or charity.

You can volunteer to coach a kids' sports league.

You can run for your school government.

You could join your HOA.

You don’t need a job in leadership or management to get reps. There are plenty of other ways.

The important thing is to identify your strength and get reps.

Now, what about your weak area?

As I said before, I’m in the leadership camp.

I'm NOT naturally gifted at management.

I've had to work really hard on developing my management skills over the years.

There have been many seasons of my leadership journey where a lack of management skills has kept me from breaking through a plateau.

That might be where you’re at, too, or maybe you’re the opposite.

Management comes so naturally to you, but you have to work harder on the leadership side of things.

That’s where we get to the next part.

Here’s the question many people ask: Should I just lean into my strengths? Or should I also develop my weak areas?

Now, I’ve seen different opinions on this.

Some people say, “It’s okay to be extreme.”

Hyper focus on your strengths.

Don’t chase a balanced life because you’ll never achieve balance.

Other people say, “No, it doesn’t have to be an either-or.”

Develop your weaknesses, and you can be well-rounded.

I like to think of this in terms of weight lifting.

A lot of weight lifters set goals to lift a certain weight, particularly in compound movements like bench press, squats, or deadlifts.

I think that’s fun.

For instance, let’s say you have a goal of hitting 315lbs on bench.

Now, you can keep working your chest to hit that goal.

And that alone might work.

Or you might find that developing other muscles that assist with that particular movement is the best strategy.

For instance, you might have weak front anterior deltoids or triceps.

If you strengthen those muscles, your overall bench press will get stronger.

In fact, there are a lot of muscles working in tandem to perform the bench press movement.

In fact, there are a lot of other movements and body parts you need to strengthen.

You can’t skip leg day, right?

You see, if you zoom out, the truth is, you have to account for your weaknesses in some way at some point.

You can’t ignore them.

Now, there may be multiple approaches to deal with your weaknesses.

But they need to somehow rise to the goals you have, or they will hold you back.

Yes, I believe you should lean into your strengths.

And yes, I believe you should personally develop your weaknesses in ways that are genuinely holding you back.

I needed to learn a certain degree of management skills to be a better leader.

There’s no doubt about that.

But let me propose a third option that too many people either forget or don’t take full advantage of.

What if instead of trying to be great at everything yourself, you surround yourself with individuals who have the strengths you don’t have?

Yes, I’m talking about a team.

This is why teams are powerful.

The best teams are organized strategically based on strengths and weaknesses.

Teams, when appropriately organized, allow people to operate within their strengths at full capacity without worrying about their weaknesses.

Their weaknesses are being cared for by another team member with complementary strengths.

I’ll give you a recent example of how wonderful this is.

I am not gifted in administration (a management skill).

However, I was sensing that our team needed to improve our administrative initiatives.

Now, as the leader, I can identify that need within our team.

However, I clearly do not have the gift to be the solution to that improvement.

If I tried to fix that myself, I’d 100% make it worse.

So, I recently hired someone who does have those skills.

Now, I could have just tried to push through and try to develop new skills, or asked one of my other team members to do that.

But the truth is, weaknesses are usually weak because we hate doing them.

If I tried to be the solution to that management need, I would probably have done a crappy job and been miserable the whole time.

That’s not a solution at all, is it?

So, sometimes the solution is not to fix our weakness, it’s to lean on someone else's strength.

This is why you should build a team, invest in that team, and protect that team.

I love MY team.

I lean on them, I celebrate them, I rely on them.

And… They rely on me to do what I need to do.

And can I tell you something?

They manage a lot.

These days, people don’t come to me for a whole lot. They come to my team.

You know why?

Because I’m leaning on their strengths.

Now, can I throw in the towel on being a good manager?

This leads me to what I know some of you are thinking already…

Isn’t it possible to be both a great leader and a great manager?

A lot of people say yes!

In fact, a lot of people say being great at both is the goal!

I would challenge you on this.

First, what’s your definition of great?

I think you can be good at both.

But I’m not sure you can be great at both.

I believe that people have a natural ability in either leadership or management, and usually have to compensate for the other.

Now, it’s possible, through discipline and diligence, that you can become above average in an area of weakness.

I would say I’m actually above average at a handful of management skills that I used to suck at.

But will all that work result in you being truly great in your weakness?

What if you applied all of that energy to your natural-born strengths?

You see, developing our weaknesses can often feel like running uphill with a weighted vest.

It’s grueling, and you only get so far.

Developing our strengths, on the other hand, can feel effortless.

It’s more like riding a bike downhill.

You get much farther, and you enjoy the process.

Consider leaning into what only you can be great at, and embracing the gifts of those around you in the areas where only they can be great!

Keep fighting the good fight!

I’ll see you again real soon!