Leadership VS Management: Why We Need Both

I like to get inspired by reading various LinkedIn posts in my feed. However, the ones on Leadership vs Management, I skip quickly. The reason is, I don’t believe in the simplification that management is bad, and leadership is good. In my opinion, the best leaders are both good at management and leadership.

Let’s have a look at what the two concepts mean: Management is the discipline of administrating an organisation or a team where the essential part is managing resources like employees and time. Managers ensure that the resources are working toward a common goal or vision using tools like planning, methodologies, and policies. Leadership is about influencing people around you and maximising their effort and developing their competencies while working towards a common goal. These two concepts must go hand-in-hand – a leader without management skills will struggle to bring the company’s vision into reality while a manager who cannot lead will struggle to gain the support and trust of the team and lose engagement. After all, leadership and management complement each other, and successful leaders actively work with both.