What is a leader versus a manager? Its one of the most pressing questions for organizations that are developing and growing, especially in rapidly evolving industries. Its really a fundamental underlying question of how do we get the most out of the human capital inside our organization. How do we ensure that the right people are in the right places, and that theyre transforming the organization into who it needs to be tomorrow. When were thinking about leaders versus managers, we have a few specific mental models. In this video, were going to cover those by starting with what is a leader versus a manager. If we clarify our definition, it will help us talk about the second two pieces. Point number two is about how we think about why leaders are more effective than managers. And third, if leaders are more effective than managers, how do you create more of them inside an organization. To start with, were going to build our mental model for you of what the difference is between a leader and a manager. In our mental model, we have a Venn diagram. Inside the large bubble of the Venn diagram are all managers inside an organization. And we define managers as people that have some kind of reporting relationship, direct or indirect, with other people inside the organization. A subset of those managers are also leaders. So in our definition, there may be many managers, but few leaders. Whats the difference between a leader and a manager? We really like a quote by Peter Drucker. He said, Leadership is doing the right things. Management is doing things right. The common visual that we get for this is that if someone is on hiking expedition, a manager is the one who climbs the tree to determine if youre headed in the right direction. The one that you planned on going in. The leader is the one who climbs the tree to determine if youre in the right forest. The big picture view of leadership creates impact inside an organization because it doesnt retain a focus on managing the status quo, which is what all managers collectively often focus on. Leaders rather think about transforming an organization. Managers are focused on the daily. Leaders are focused on the annual. And when youre a leader and a manager in that intersection, you think about both together. Not just how in a single year youre going to go where you want to go, but what you should be doing on a daily basis in order to get there. Larger picture leaders, leaders of entire organizations, think at an even higher level. They should, at least. They should think on a five-year scale. Where do we want to be, who do we want to be in a five year period versus where we today. Leaders are different than managers, and again, they cant disconnect from the daily because leaders that are good at only vision and not execution never realize the potential of their ideas. So thats why in our mental model, leaders must also be managers. There is no option for leaders that are not managers. The second question is why are leaders more effective than managers. Leaders are more effective than managers drive growth inside organizations. They drive transformation. Managers are excellent at ensuring that nothing falls by the wayside. That there is not a decrease in revenue or a decrease in productivity, that people dont leave the organization unnecessarily. But growth in managers alone is nearly impossible. Because their design is to focus on delivery. When we move down the scale and we think about someone at the analyst level, their focus is primarily not just on delivery from the organization standpoint, but single delivery. When we move up the scale to managers who are also leaders, they create transformation inside the organization. The vision that they provide ties people and purpose together. It enables organizations to take the why instead of the how. It also imparts that to larger teams of people, which ensures greater productivity. So a manager says this is how you do it. A leader says heres why. You go figure out the how. Its an empowering technique that retains power distributed inside organizations, which makes them on the whole more productive. So if leader managers are different than just managers alone, and if leaders are more effective, then the pressing question remains. How do you create more of them inside an organization? The critical step to ensure that you have a built-in process to identify those who are leaders to impart the skills that they have throughout your organization. And to train people to think more like leaders. These are tactics that we can help with inside Management Consulted. In fact, we have very specific trainings and tools that you can use on a one time or on an annual basis to help your people think about the why of what they do, to drive growth and transformation, and to improve the clarity of the way that we think. We use a training thats based on a concept called the pyramid principle to drive transformation inside your organization. If you would like to take what weve talked about in this video and make it a part of your culture, transforming managers to leaders, we would love to help. You can reach out to us at managementconsulted.com, or by email. Were excited to partner with you as you drive your engine of growth inside your company.