CSUGC Different Qualities that Align with Leadership Questions

Review the following video on Leading vs. managing (Andreatta & Madecraft, 2020) and answer the following questions.

In your workplace, home, community organization, or another real-life scenario, would you view yourself as a leader or a manager, or both, and why?

Based on your personal and/or professional experiences, do you believe managers or leaders have more of an impact on generating positive outcomes or do you find them equal? 

Leading vs. managing

Selecting transcript lines in this section will navigate to timestamp in the video

– Throughout your day, you’re probably going back and forth between managing and leading. Today, leadership and management are closely intertwined, because almost all people in leadership roles also manage people and projects or functions. Let’s explore the important distinctions between them. The primary goal of leadership is to produce change and growth. As a leader, you envision a better tomorrow, and design the change that will get the organization from here to there. The primary goal of management is to produce order and consistency. As a manager you create a stable work environment that is clear and consistent so employees can be as productive as possible. Needless to say, there’s some natural tensions between being a manager and being a leader. Think about your day to day work over the past two weeks, and identify when you’re managing and when you’re leading. Here are key distinctions to look for. The first is about approach. Managing is tactical and hands-on, while leading is strategic and visionary. This is because the timeframe is different. Managing occurs in the here and now. You’re looking at the short-term and mid-range goals that ensure the success of the organization today. Contrast that with leading, where the focus is on the future, and setting strategy and change to create the organization of tomorrow. And the focus shifts too, from narrow and internal for managing, to broad and external for leading, where the scope widens to include other functions, the industry market and national and global affairs. The next distinction is that managing relies on current resources and structures, while leading involves designing new processes for the future. For managing, the task goals are directing the daily work and employees to achieve currently identified goals, whereas leading requires planning for the future, setting a long-term vision and strategy to bring about that change. Finally, the people skills differ as well. Both managing and leading rely on emotional intelligence. But managing is more tactical, like conducting one on one meetings, delegating tasks, and coaching employee’s performance. All that said, there is no one answer that fits every company or serves every leader. This is what makes the concept of leadership so interesting. What is considered the future vision for one organization or leadership could be a standard practice or management in another. But knowing the difference between managing and leading will make you better at both.