The Difference between Management & Leadership

The scene was a night class during my Master’s degree: The professor spouted his favorite cliché: “You don’t manage people – you lead people, and you manage things.” I was reminded of this last week when giving a workshop and a manager in the class spouted out the same profound cliché.
It sounds great. “You lead people, and you manage things.” It’s salient. Even philosophical. But it’s wrong.
Before I defend my position, some definitions would probably help. In the words of Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, two of the most respected names in business, leadership is doing the right things; management is doing things right.
In other words, leadership - doing the right things—is deciding the best course of action to take. What are the things we should be doing to get us to where we want to go? What direction or course of action should we take? Where do we want to be in the end?
The act of management then follows the act of leadership. Once the best course or direction has been decided, management - doing things right—picks up the ball, looks at the objectives established by leadership and says, “Okay, here’s the best way to get there.” …