Hi everyone! This week on Her Leadership Mindset, we are discussing leadership vs management! This is one of my favorite topics to discuss, so let’s dive in.
What’s The Difference?
One of my pet peeves in business is when people use the words ‘leadership’ and ‘management’ interchangeably. Yes, they overlap some of the time in business and life. However, they are very different. For starters, I want to provide you with the definition of leadership and management. According to Oxford Languages, leadership is “the action of leading a group of people or an organization.” Now, let’s contrast that with their definition of management; “the process of dealing with or controlling things or people.” After reading those definitions, which one sounds more appealing to you?
I have said this on my page before and I will probably say it until the day I die, leadership is about influence and how you use it. As a leader, you want to motivate your followers and empower them to live up to their fullest potential. As a manager, you are focused on policies, deadlines, short-term goals, etc., and not the dynamic or culture of the organization.
Yes, focusing on the present and getting tasks done is a top priority in every organization. However, if you are not focusing on the relationships between you and your employees/followers, none of the tasks matter. Especially if everyone has a negative attitude towards coming to work. This leads to a hostile work environment, lower performance rates, lower sales, etc. and who wants to be a part of that? Not me, and hopefully not you as the reader. I want to enjoy coming to work every day and feel empowered to give every task my full performance because I want to, not because I am forced to.
What’s the Impact?
Let’s say that you are a manager of a boutique or retail store. You tell your employees that they have to hit $1,000 in sales today so the company can hit its sales goal for the week. As an employee that can feel hard to reach because your manager made it seem like you have to hit that number. This could cause stress and anxiety, or could even cause negative feelings towards the company in general. It could also hurt your performance for the day because you are so worried about reaching the goal. Furthermore, you are not as focused on how you can best help the customer.
Now, let’s look at this from a leadership perspective. If you are the leader of the retail store, you would tell your employees that the company is so close to hitting the sales goal for the week and that everyone’s goal for today’s shift is to hit $1,000 each. You may even offer to buy them coffee or their favorite drink as a reward if they hit the goal. Using this approach could inspire or motivate the employees to be more interactive with their customers and make their experience in the store the best it can be. The overall objective of this example is to show readers that if you use a more motivational approach versus a forceful one, not only will the employee’s experience be better, but the customers will be as well.
If you would like to, pause here and think about a situation, either professionally or personally, similar to this one. Think about how you felt at that moment and try to understand how the different approaches could have affected your attitude toward the situation.
Finally, leaders need to effectively communicate, build and maintain trust, influence their followers, and so much more. Over this semester, these are just a few of the topics I will write about on Her Leadership Mindset. I also have some exciting interviews lined up that I am excited to share with you all! Stay tuned!
– Brea
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Very true! Thanks for sharing.