Leadership vs Management – Difference and Comparison

What is Leadership?

Leadership is a working entity, be it an organization, team, or political party, that is a group of individuals that is responsible for innovating ideas for its growth and development in the light of their envisaged vision. It comes at the top of the hierarchy of any organization because the role organization depends on it for its very existence. It is creative and decides to take ventures in new directions for growth, progress, and development.

The entrepreneurial part of an organization or company is always played by the leadership. It is the leadership that sets both short-term and long-term goals. They calculate challenges and hardships in the execution of ideas. Leadership is always the inspiring part of an organization that is responsible for keeping its employees intact. They keep on setting enduring examples of innovation and resilience.

As said, leadership decides which are the right things to do. It eyes the current state of an organization and also its future prospects of it. It is characterized by high emotional intelligence, timeliness of decisions, and persistence in undertakings. Leadership provides the employees with a working environment and also lays down the rules and regulations. The power lies with the leadership that it uses to change and transform the professional landscape.

What is Management?

Management is at the bottom of an organization’s hierarchy. Management consists of individuals that are responsible for keeping things straight in the light of instructions provided by the leadership. These individuals are task-oriented that most work in teams and collaborate with each other to regulate the operations within an organization. The management is not fully independent in its decisions unless they are approved by the leadership.

The main purpose of management is to ensure the proper execution of everyday tasks and events. Since an organization has multiple parts, each part has its own managerial team that regulates it. Management has the ability to make decisions that require immediate attention, e.g., resolving issues and managing a project. It also issues instructions to the lower working bodies and acts as a mediator between the working part and the leadership.

Management does not own a business or an organization. It is a group of mere employees that get paid for their extraordinary regulatory skills. It is not the face of an organization because management never represents that business; it just regulates it and ensures the right functioning of the parts of an organization.

Difference Between Leadership and Management

  1. Leadership represents an organization, whereas management just regulates it.
  2. Leadership makes the rules, whereas management implements them.
  3. Leadership inspires the people, whereas management binds the people.
  4. Leadership relies on its ideas, whereas management relies on leadership.
  5. Leadership is endless in its scope, whereas management has specific roles.
  6. Leadership is the owning body, whereas management comprises paid employees.
  7. Leadership is committed to change, whereas management is committed to stability.

Comparison Between Leadership and Management

Parameters of ComparisonLeadershipManagement
ScopeLeadership is broader in its scopeManagement has a limited scope
Work OrientationAims to innovate and transform the scenarioAims to regulate the already existing system
TargetsFocuses on creativity, challenges, and long-term goalsFocuses on stability, sustainability, and workability
DependenceFully independent in its plans and actions Needs approval from the leadership for major decisions
Decision MakingLeadership guides how to make decisionsManagement takes decisions within its limit