LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT: TWO TIGHTLY

INTERTWINED CONSTRUCTS WITH DIFFERENT

PURPOSES

Ayman Nassar
Founder, Intercontinental Networks
www.anassar.net
anassar@anassar.net
Leadership and Management: Are They Different Constructs?

Back to Basics
Numerous definitions exist for traditional leadership [1]. I define traditional leadership as a process whereby an individual
influences a group of individuals or self, to achieve an important valuable and common goal. This is almost the same
definition presented by Northouse [1] with the addition that influence could also be on oneself and usually the goal is
common, important and of value from the leader’s perspective. The leader’s main role is to convince self and the team that
the goals have common value and are of high significance and importance.

Traditional management has been defined by Fayol [2] to comprise of 5 main functions, planning, organizing, coordinating,
directing and controlling. Planning involves studying the future, performing forecasts, developing scenarios, setting goals,
defining objectives, mission development, vision setting and authorizing charters, and arranging the means for dealing
with the needs identified as a result of these studies and definitions. Organizing involves developing architectures,
designs, standards, processes, methods and approaches to make work accomplished and repeatable. Directing ensures
that the team has the proper understanding of the direction to be followed, and work strategy to be implemented; it entails
negotiation, motivation, communication, ensuring focus and alignment. Controlling is ensuring that work is carried out
according to the plans developed, it comprises of measuring work results, comparing to baselines, limiting resource usage
and optimization, prioritization, verification and validation of work as well as mitigating risks.

Commonalities
We notice from the above definitions and roles of a leader and manager that there is commonality in the construct of both,
as both roles shares several common functions such as the influencing aspect in leadership and the directing aspect in
management. The planning role is also another common area. While leaders focus more on strategic planning for their
entire organization and less on tactical planning, a manager will focus on strategic planning for his/her particular work
group as well as tactical planning.

Differences
There are some differences between a leader and a manager; these differences are more pronounced in areas of
organization and coordination. For leaders to be effective they need to be able to at least organize their own tasks,
responsibilities and functions, however they might not be deeply involved in enterprise-wide organization, this task might
be delegated more to managers. Leaders will also seldom coordinate between resources; some exceptions are inter-
organizational coordination such as in the form of negotiations, and highly strategic relationships.

Are the Constructs Really Different

Although I mention some differences between management and leadership and Kotter has highlighted several differences
in [1], I am hesitant to state that leadership and management have entirely different constructs and structures. The
constructs overlap to a large extent, even though they have slightly different points of view. However they are highly inter-
twined and connected. This is especially true in the current times where business processes have become more
sophisticated and complex than in the past, and change is taking place at a high pace touching almost every corner of an
organization, regardless of its type of activities.
For a leader to be effective, the leader must exhibit strong managerial skills, similarly for the manager to be effective
strong leadership skills must be available.

Figure 1 illustrates the relationship between Systems Engineering

traditional management and leadership, and
examples of two technical domains which span
the leadership and management domains. Problem Solving
Individuals in these roles need to not only Motivating
manage the technical, logistical, administrative Negotiation
and programmatic areas of the product, system Planning
or service, but also need to lead the “best Management Directing Leadership
Needs Analysis
interest” of the product, system or service.
Critical Thinking
Emotional Intelligence
This leadership exhibits itself in the form of
strategy development, innovation planning,
influencing other groups internally and Product Management
externally, aligning product development,
marketing, sales and service teams, negotiating
technical capabilities against schedule and cost
are other aspects of technical leadership.

Figure 1. Depiction of the overlap between management and leadership, and examples of two technical functions which encompass both
management and leadership functions.

Conclusion
Separating management from leadership is not a wise decision regardless of the organizational level. At higher levels of
the organization leadership will be more profound and of higher importance. However all levels of the organization should
exhibit a degree of leadership, even at the non-managerial staff level, which could simply be self-leadership. This model
will allow organizations to be more competitive, agile, flexible and innovative resulting in true value delivery to their
stakeholders.

References
[1] P. Northouse, “Leadership: Theory and Practice”, 4th edition, Sage Publications, 2007.

[2] Society of Human Resources Management, “Strategic Management”, SHRM Learning System, 2005.