Keith Morris Writing - Leadership and Management
“Leadership” and “Management” mean different thing to different people. There are many schools of
thought regarding what leadership is, what management is, whether these two things are similar, the
same, or opposites. This essay will define leadership and management, the similarity between the two,
and the need for schools to view both skillsets as necessary for collaboration.
What is Leadership and Management?
Dictionary.com defines Leadership as:
1. The position or function of a leader, a person who guides or directs a group: “He managed to
maintain his leadership of the party despite heavy opposition.”
2. Ability to lead: “As early as sixth grade she displayed remarkable leadership potential.”
3. An act or instance or leading; guidance; direction: “They prospered under his strong leadership.”
Dictionary.com defines Management as:
1. The act or manner of managing: handling, direction, or control.
2. Skill in managing: executive ability: “Great management and tact.”
3. The person or persons controlling and directing the affairs of a business, institution, etc.: “The
store is under new management.”
Dr. John Kotter (1990), in his book “What Leaders Really Do”, states management makes systems of
people and technology work well day after day week after week, year after year.




Planning and budgeting
Organizing and staffing
Controlling and problem solving
Taking complex systems of people and technology and making them run efficiently and
effectively, hour after hour, day after day.
Leadership creates the systems that managers manage and changes them in fundamental ways to take
advantage of opportunities and to avoid hazards.





Creating vision and strategy
Communicating and setting direction
Motivating action
Aligning people
Creating systems that managers can manage and transforming them when needed to allow for
growth, evolution, opportunities, and hazard avoidance
Diffen.com, the website designed to compare and contrast items assert people naturally and willingly
follow leaders due to their charisma and personality traits, whereas a manager is obeyed due to the
formal authority vested in him/her. As a result, people tend to be more loyal towards leaders rather
than managers. Managing and leading are two different ways of organizing people.
Leadership is setting a new direction or vision for a group that they follow, for example, a leader is the
spearhead for that new direction. On the other hand, management controls or directs people/resources
in a group according to principles or values that have already been established. The manager uses a
formal, rational method whilst the leader uses passion and stirs emotions.
Comparison Chart
Definition
Personality styles
Focus
Outcomes
Approach to tasks
Approach to risk
Role in decision making
Leadership means
“the ability of an
individual to influence,
motivate, and enable
others to contribute
toward the
effectiveness and
success of the
organizations of which
they are members.”
Are often call brilliant
and mercurial, with
great charisma. Yet,
they are also often
seen as loners and
private people. They
are comfortable taking
risks, sometimes
seemingly wild and
crazy risks. Almost all
leaders have high
levels of imagination
Leading people
Achievements
Simply look at
problems and devise
new, creative
solutions. Using their
charisma and
commitment, they
excite, motivate, and
focus others to solve
problems and excel.
Risk-taking
Facilitative
Management
comprises directing
and controlling a
group of one or more
people or entities for
the purpose of
coordinating and
harmonizing that
group towards
accomplishing a goal.
Tend to be rational,
under control problem
solvers. They often
focus on goals,
structures, personnel,
and availability of
resources. Managers’
personalities lean
toward persistence,
strong will, analysis,
and intelligence.
Managing work
Results
Create strategies,
policies, and methods
to create teams and
ideas that combine to
operate smoothly.
They empower people
by soliciting their
views, values, and
principles. They
believe that this
combination reduces
inherent risk and
generates success
Risk-averse
Involved
Similarities
According to Kotter, leadership can be considered an age-old concept that has been around for
centuries, while management is a concept developed in the last 100 years, in part from the rise of the
industrial revolution. There is an overlap between the two fields; when managers are involved in
influencing a group of employees to meets its goals, they are operating under leadership. When leaders
are involved in aspects such as planning, organizing, staffing or controlling, they are operating within
management. Simply stated, although there are clear differences between leadership and management,
they may never be completely separate.
Steve Myers of Team Technology (2013) surmised the notion that leadership without managements sets
a direction or vision that others follow, without considering how the new direction is going to be
achieved. There can be leaders who do not manage in the workplace. For example, an entrepreneur
might grow a business by networking, building relationships, and generating ideas for new products.
However, he/she might also rely on a deputy e.g. a factory manager = to ensure the right staff are
recruited, products or services are produced, and the business is delivered.
As a leader in pupil instruction, the product is a human being; a child, mankind’s most precious jewel in
its species. There is not a “Prototype Child” in instruction; because each students come to school with
his/her individual strengths and challenges. With this in mind, school leaders must direct the vision of
the learning process, while daily monitoring the progress of the vision and goals established.
Myers asserts management without leadership controls resources to maintain the status quo or ensure
things happen according to already established plans. For example, a sports referee manages opposing
teams to ensure they keep within the rules of the game. However, a referee does not usually provide
“leadership” because there is no new change, no new direction.
In addition, what is often referred to as “participative management” can be a very effective form of
leadership through collaboration. In this approach, a new direction may seem to emerge from the group
rather than the leader. However, a team leader of project within a school has facilitated that new
direction will ultimately engender ownership within the group, thus being an advanced form of
leadership.
Dr. Kristina G. Ricketts (2009), of the University of Kentucky’s Community and Leadership Development
that there are obvious similarities with leadership and management (i.e. management is often more
task-oriented, leadership is often considered more inspirational and visionary. It is understood that on
person can work efficiently in mastering both fields.
With current federal, state, and local mandates for school improvement through student achievement,
it is imperative that both leadership and management skill sets are used simultaneously. Teachers must
shift their pedagogy toward research based strategies for increasing student achievement. School
leaders must manage the daily operations of school, while being instructional leaders directing teachers
and supporting personnel through the crucial times of change.
Both Leadership and Management Skillsets Necessary for Collaboration
Leadership and management skillsets are necessary for collaboration in the school improvement
process. Understanding skills in each of the aforementioned will provide insight toward the collaborative
direction the team will use to increase student achievement. Skills are different from traits or
characteristics in that they are the ability to use one’s knowledge and competences to accomplish a set
of objectives.
Changing Minds.org (2013) states that leaders have followers and not subordinates. Many
organizational leaders do have subordinates, but only because they are also managers. But when they
want to lead, they have to give up formal authoritarian control, because to lead is to have followers.
Telling people what to do does not inspire them to follow a leader. The leader has to appeal to them,
show how following them will lead to their intrinsic passions. As a part of their persuasion they typically
promise transformational benefits, such that their followers will not just receive extrinsic rewards, but
will somehow become better people.
People focus is a skillset that leaders have. This does not require a loud personality. Leaders are always
good with people, and quiet styles that give credit to others (and takes blame on themselves) are very
effective at creating the loyalty that great leaders engender. Although leaders are good with people, this
does not mean that that they are close and personal friends with the people they serve. Recognizing the
importance of enthusing others to work towards their vision, without isolation from the team in which
they are leading.
While managers are typically risk-adverse, leaders appeared as risk-seeking, although they are not blind
academic thrill-seekers. When moving the team toward their vision, leaders consider it natural to
encounter problems and hurdles that must be overcome along the way. They are comfortable with risk
and will see routes that others avoid as potential opportunities for advantage.
A number of leaders historically had some form of handicap in their lives which they had to overcome.
Some had traumatic childhoods, some had problems such as dyslexia, others were shorter than average.
This may have taught them the independence of mind that is needed to go out on a limb to accomplish
a goal.
Ricketts (2009) illustrates essential management skills for a successful organization. Because
management responsibilities are generally much more task oriented than some leadership
responsibilities, one important way to operationalize effective management is to discuss necessary
skills. Effective administration depends upon three person skill sets: technical, human, and conceptual.

Technical skill: knowledge about and proficiency in a specific type of work or activity. This may
include competencies within a specialized field, analytical ability, or the ability to use
appropriate tools and techniques. A good example of this is the knowledge of software
language and programming, the company’s software products, and how to trouble shoot for
clients when working for a computer software company.


Human skill: knowledge about and ability to work with people, often considered “people” skills.
These skills allow a manager to assist group member when working cooperatively as a group to
achieve a task or assignment. Examples of this group of skills include being aware of one’s own
perspective on issues as well as your team members’ perspectives, knowing the needs and
motivations on your staff, and taking into account others’ needs during decision-making.
Conceptual skill: the ability to work with ideas and concepts. This skill set does not involve
working with people or things, but focuses on ideas. A manager with good conceptual skills will
be comfortable talking about the ideas and details that shape their group or organization. He or
she is good at seeing the bigger picture and can translate this understanding into words
everyone understands.
Each of these types of skills is important for effective management, and are necessary within different
levels of management within a group or organization. Many of these skills are also useful for effective
leadership, generally within a slightly different context. It is usually as simple as knowing what context is
most appropriate to the situation and applying oneself in a leadership or management capacity.
Conclusion
With current standards on the federal, state, and local level requiring schools reach far and beyond their
individual/collective comfort zones; reaching toward elevated goals for student achievement, it is
imperatives that school leaders humble themselves to assume both roles. The roles of being an effective
leader simultaneously as being an effective manager will enhance and advance their ability to serve
children and teachers.
In reality, most leaders will lean more toward being a leader or manager, but one must be conscious to
not to ignore the skillset that they may perceive as their “weakest link,” and consistently work at
strengthening the growth area, while maintain their strength in administration. School principals act as
public stewards, ensuring leading both their leadership skills to create a vision and goals that the team
will buy into, and manage the efficiency of the progress in achieving those goals; holding stakeholders
accountable.
School principals must adopt a collaborative approach to leadership and management. In addition to
administrators, there are several leaders in schools. Teachers, parents, and students play a vital role in
establishing goals, creating ideas, and questioning why things are the way they are. In most schools, the
principal is the authority figure, but the true power is controlled by the constituents s/he serves. In
other words, if the leader wants effective change in their school, they must embrace a variety of
stakeholders’ gifts and talents to achieve the expected outcomes.
Management must also be utilized in a collaborative manner. To ensure the daily functions of running a
school from monitoring the academic progress of students, to maintaining a safe and conducive school
climate, leaders must solicit support from staff, parents, and students not in a way to “keep everyone
happy,” but as an acknowledgement that each stakeholder plays a vital role in increasing student
achievement for the common good.
Citations
Kotter, J (1990) “What Leaders Really Do.” Kotter International, Cambridge, MA.
Ricketts, K.G. “Leadership vs. Management.” University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY.
Changingmind.org (2013) “Leadership vs. Management.” Retrieved February 2014 from
http://changemingminds.org/disciplines/leadershp/articles/manager_leadeship
Steve Myers (2013) “Leadership And Management: What is the Difference?” Team Technology,
Retrieved February 2013 from http://teamtechnology.co.uk.leadership/management/overview/