Leadership... Management... Is There Really A Difference?
by Matthew Richter
It's old... I know... Really old...
But can you tell me the actual difference between management and leadership?
I bet you think you can. And I also bet there are some major flaws in how you actually distinguish between the two. Further, I bet when push comes to shove, you would have a pretty difficult time finding experts who properly find and explain those distinctions.
And you aren't alone.
Why?
Because, despite tons and tons (a technical phrase) of content out there on leadership— specifically, leadership vs. management, little has been studied or presented in a way that explains the difference cogently, consistently, and coherently.
Why?
Because those differences don’t really exist. At least, so I will posit.
In fact, a tremendous amount has been written in various journals and books exploring this topic. (A bibliography is posted at the bottom of this blog.) Most of those support my premise, or they indicate I’m likely right through the failure to support their own. Those advocating a significant difference fail to do so because they lack cogent, consistent, or coherent arguments. In other words, there seems to be little to differentiate these two mighty concepts.
All too often the concepts are conflated with each other.
One tease… for later in this post. The historian, Keith Grint has shared a way of thinking about leadership and management that has changed my life because he has indeed reconciled these two ideas. But more on that later. First, let’s keep exploring the problem.
In one 2007 article from the British Journal of Management, by Young & Dulewicz, the authors summarize aspects of the two concepts dating back to 1916 (Fayol) and going through Benis and Nanus (1997) with a pitstop at Kotter (1990) to illustrate just my point (or, I think better said… I am illustrating their point).
Take for example, “Leaders are masters of the context.” and “Managers control the environment.”
Semantically these statements are pretty darn similar. Same with leaders set direction. And, managers plan. Or, Leaders align people. Managers organize and staff. Hard to separate these factors completely, if at all, right?
Another common perspective is that management is more concrete and tactical. Leadership is more strategic and inspiring. But, as we explore more deeply, many managers, for example, tend to also be more visionary and are required to take on those few distinctive leader behaviors in their current roles. Not to imply there can't be overlap, but it is difficult to claim a behavior only in one camp and not the other. In other words, many of the behaviors we ascribe to leadership also fall within the management taxonomy.
Further, many leadership development programs use leadership as a heading for management development because it often has (erroneously) more cache— more prestige. A great meta-analysis by Lacerenzaet. al. (2017) showed a significant positive impact in leadership development when multiple factors were present (a great set of parameters and a subject for a different post). But a major caveat was that many of the studies in the meta-analysis failed to properly distinguish between management and leadership where "the terms are often used interchangeably and in the current investigation, managerial training programs are included within our examination of leadership training programs."
So... what is the difference and should we even care?
Practically speaking, I would say, no.
I would argue we should identify what managers and leaders are doing and provide development that targets their skill and behavioral advancement in those specific contexts. So development should always be contextual and not prescriptive absent those contexts. If an executive needs to be better at financial decision making- we can teach that. If a manager needs to be a better planner, we can offer that. Regardless of title or position. Continuing to use management and leadership interchangeably is confusing and can cause fractures in our learning designs, our job descriptions, and our goal setting. We are better off focusing on specifically what we want, expect, and need.
And to my earlier promise… let’s move to a different, more useful paradigm. Historian and leadership researcher, Keith Grint stipulates that leadership and management are on a continuum— along with another behavior, command. To begin with, and I am greatly oversimplifying Keith’s perspective here, one begins with an understanding of the type of problem(s) the organization is facing. He uses Horst W. J. Rittel’s concept of WICKED PROBLEMS (and Rittel and Webber’s notion of WICKED AND TEAM PROBLEMS) and builds on it. A wicked problem is a complex situation where there is no clear solution. In fact, it may be many conflating problems together. Fix one part of the situation and 10 more bad things may arise. There is no obvious, evident way to proceed. Recent wicked problems might be organizational responses to COVID. He explains the notion of TAME PROBLEMS. Tame problems are not tame because they are wimpy. Rather they are tame because, regardless of how complicated they may be, we know what to do. We have the processes, procedures, and methods to execute toward a resolution. They are tame because we have an answer. Then, Keith introduces the concept contextually, of CRITICAL PROBLEMS. Critical problems are emergencies. It’s the patient bleeding out on the gurney. It’s the financial crash. All three of these types of problems require a different kind of response. When faced with a WICKED PROBLEM, leadership is required. The function of leadership facilitates critical thinking, brainstorming, analysis, strategic development, etc. It requires flexible and dynamic engagement— not the same applied behaviors in every situation. It requires leaders to identify and put the most knowledgeable experts in the room and get them to work the problem. TAME PROBLEMS require a managerial response. Someone to apply the processes known and ensure quality execution. CRITICAL PROBLEMS require a COMMANDER to take charge. There is no time to engage others or execute a potentially complicated procedure. Someone must make those critical decisions immediately to avoid catastrophe. Now, of course, there is likely crossover in behaviors with each problem type response. But it doesn’t matter.
What matters is that we view leading, managing, and commanding as all part of the same overall family of approaching how we solve various problems. They are all a part of the same continuum. Teach leading, managing, and commanding together. Because in an organization, we need all three functions— often from the same person depending on the context. If we consider the response to a problem type the actual distinction, then that is a much easier way to distinguish between these traditionally nebulous concepts.
My posts over the next year will delve into these different applications and consider practical approaches organizations and those inflicted with a leader title can take to be more effective depending on their own specific contexts.
So… more to come.
BIBLIOGRAPHY (It’s always fun when the bibliography is longer than the blog post…)
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