Difference between Leadership and Management

There is a difference between Leadership and Management.

The degree to which you need leadership vs management skills in an organization depends on the maturity/stability of an organization at any given point in time. Management is more transactional and keeps existing systems running. Leadership is more transformational and hence helps to create, develop and change businesses.

A lot of businesses are in a period of change and therefore Leadership skills are very important.

Old corporate cultures often promoted a non-collaborative management style. You might even argue if that happened deliberately or only “by accident” because the impact of such a culture on the long-term success of the company had not been thought through thoroughly enough by the senior management in the past.

The challenge is to break the habits which in the past have let to success of the individual managers  (…as opposed to leaders...) in your business. Change needs to happen on an individual basis. We need to win the hearts and minds of everyone to believe in the new way of working. And we have to be honest: Not every person has the ability/flexibility or willingness to change.

Real leaders act as change agents. They actively drive the transformation. Leadership should be infectious, it should “spark” people, it should drive people towards a common goal.

Leaders should therefore encompass three main elements: Vision, Passion and Authenticity

• Leaders need to have their own vision. If their own individual vision happens to be in line with the corporate vision we have the right people and the necessary “buy-in” and we can be sure that the leadership team pulls into the same direction.
• Leaders need to be passionate. Passion keeps the drive towards the realization of the vision and helps overcome the obstacles. Passion is a strong source for the intrinsic motivation and energy that is needed in a transformation. 
• Leaders need to be authentic. Authenticity exists when (a) what you say, (b) what you do and (c) what you think/believe is fully in sync. Authenticity creates trust, which is the basis for engaging with individuals and creating teams. 

Usually most people sense a violation of authenticity in a subtle, sometimes subconscious way, which is often the reason why the “supposed-to-be” leaders can’t create the necessary “traction” within their teams.

Authenticity - and hence leadership - often breaks because what people do is not in line with what they say. (This doesn't even take into account that people might neither say nor do what they really think/believe)

Assuming that people actually think/believe and say the right things in line with the new business direction, the challenge is to align their behavior - meaning what they actually do - to ensure their authenticity and hence effective leadership.

Peoples actual behavior is influenced by their individual circumstances and their experience. Some people have strong values, principles and ethics which predominantly drive their behavior, whilst other people choose to (…or are even forced to…) be predominately driven by incentives.

Whilst the right incentive system will potentially not solve all of the issues associated with a corporate transformation, we need to be aware that some company cultures are extremely receptive to incentives and that often the vast majority of managers still orientate their behavior more on incentives than on certain values, principles and ethics.

That's what distinguishes usual managers from great leaders.