Many readers ask me about the difference between Managers and Leaders; and common questions are:
– Is a leader born o made?
– Does anybody can be a leader if takes the appropriate training?
– Can a manager be a good leader? And vice versa?
Added to that, ASQ CEO Bill Troy asked an interesting question in his November blog post from the View from the Q: Is every quality professional a Leader? Well, good timing to talk about it and answer all the questions.
Lot of writers and leadership gurus like Warren Bennis, Murray, Stephen Covey, Peter F. Drucker, have talked about leadership, and the differences with management. I’ve compiled some of those differences in the following comparison chart for an easy understanding.
Let’s clarify this: managers are not the bad guys! The thing is that leaders use to be recognized and admired, while managers don’t (do you know any recognized person for being a good manager? I don’t). However, both skills are crucial for the good of a business. “Leadership and management are two distinctive and complementary systems of action. Both are necessary for success in an increasingly complex and volatile business environment” said John Kotter, author of What Leaders Really Do.
For that reason, the one that has a title as “MANAGER” must learn leadership competencies; they not only need to be good at planning and making decisions, but also need to be good to innovate and inspire.
Getting back to the questions raised at the beginning, the answers are summarized in the following classification I made up regarding what type of leader a person is. I think it exists 3 different people:
- INNATE LEADERS: are the ones that are born with something inside that make them be THE LEADERS. That something can’t be learned and it differentiates them from the “trained leaders”.
- TRAINED LEADERS: are the ones who are born with some leadership capabilities that need to be exploded by training, and they have to be open to do that in order to become a good leader.
- THE OTHERS: people who, no matter how hard they try, they are not going to be good leaders or simply, they are not interested in becoming one.
Regarding Bill Troy question: is every quality professional a leader? I agree with Bill that quality professionals because the activities they perform, they need to have a leadership mind: they are always looking beyond the horizon, guiding people and the entire organization toward a continuous improvement.
But if we think of the previous classification, we should ask: What type of leader you are? Do you think you need training to become a good leader? And the most crucial one: Do you, quality professionals, want to be a leader?
In my opinion, quality professionals who really are passionate about quality, want to be a good leader; but keeping in mind the “others” classification, we can’t “expect” every quality professional to be a leader.
To finish, Peter Drucker said: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things“
Share your thoughts with me; DO you consider yourself a leader? What type of leader you are?
