Leader vs. Manager: What’s the Distinction?

by Craig Perrin

culled from:http://www.achieveglobal.es

TThe Question

“What’s the difference between a

leader and a manager?”

Well-worn as that question may be, it

remains worth asking because times

change, and leaders succeed when

their words, decisions, and actions

address prevailing conditions. We all

suspect, for example, that solving

today’s extraordinary problems will

take someone other than the all-

business manager who kept us on

the tracks – and then ran us off the

tracks – over the past few years.

To answer this and other questions,

the AchieveGlobal research team set

out to discover how leaders succeed –

to isolate their central concerns and

activities – in today’s business climate.

The Research

We defined a multi-phased process,

exploring secondary and primary

sources, to collect and analyze qualita-

tive and quantitative data. To begin, we

captured key themes from two years of

articles in eight respected peer-

reviewed journals from Europe, Asia,

and the Americas.

We reviewed all article abstracts, read

and summarized 80 full articles, and

developed a provisional leadership

model – a hypothesis, if you will – to

guide the primary research.

We presented this early model to focus

groups of executives and middle man-

agers in a range of industries and the

public sector. Their real-world experi-

ence confirmed some themes, added

new ones, and helped refine the model

for quantitative testing.

We then designed and launched an

online survey in the United States,

Mexico, India, China, Singapore,

Germany, and the United Kingdom,

gathering 971 responses from business

and government leaders and associ-

ates. Respondents represented global

and domestic-only organizations rang-

ing from fewer than 500 to more than

25,000 employees.

The Findings

Our principal findings were 42 leader-

ship practices

1

– some behavioral,

some cognitive – required to meet key

global leadership challenges isolated by

the research:

•

Cost pressures

•

Competitors

•

Improving customer satisfaction

•

Technology challenges

•

Driving sales growth

•

Employee productivity

•

Product/service innovation

We sorted the 42 practices into six

categories, or “zones,” to form a com-

prehensive model of leadership in the

21

st century.

The Leadership Zone Model

Statistical analysis confirmed that all six

zones correlate very highly with each

other, suggesting that the six zones

triangulate on a larger leadership construct.

In other words, the six-zone approach is

very accurate.

2

The Practices

As useful as statistics may be, most lead-

ers will find greater use in the practices

themselves – listed here with a short

behavioral definition for each zone:

Zone

1

– Reflection:

Leaders assess

their motives, beliefs, attitudes, and

actions, asking, “How can I make sure my

limitations don’t lead me to make poor

decisions?” To succeed in this zone, leaders:

•

Take responsibility for their own

mistakes.

3

•

Seek the knowledge required to make

sense of the big picture.

•

Examine what role they play in the

challenges that they face.

•

Treat failure as a chance to learn

and grow.

•

Reflect often on their performance

as a leader.

•

Give serious consideration to opinions

that differ from their own.

•

Speak frankly with others to learn from

them and build trust.

Zone

2

– Society:

Leaders apply princi-

ples such as fairness, respect, and “the

greater good” to balance individual and

group well-being. To succeed in this zone,

leaders:

•

Act ethically to serve the larger good,

not just to obey the law.

•

Encourage others to take socially

responsible action.

•

Openly challenge what they consider

unethical decisions and actions.

•

Take action to benefit others, not just

themselves.

•

Recognize and reward others based on

merit, not on politics.

•

Make fair decisions, even if they have

a negative impact on themselves.

•

Take steps to reduce environmental

harm.

Zone

3

– Diversity:

Leaders respect

and leverage such basic differences as

gender, ethnicity, age, nationality, and

beliefs. To succeed in this zone, leaders:

•

Strive to meet the needs of customers

representing other cultures.

•

Encourage collaboration among people

from different groups.

•

Display sensitivity in managing across

cultural boundaries.

•

Collaborate well with people very

different from themselves.

•

Effectively lead groups made up of

very diverse people.

•

Learn about the business practices

of other cultures.

•

Manage virtual teams with explicit

customer-centric goals and practices.

Zone

4

– Ingenuity:

Leaders offer

and execute practical ideas – and help

others do the same – to create a cli-

mate in which innovation can thrive.

To succeed in this zone, leaders:

•

Help other people to adapt quickly

to changes.

•

Help groups to develop a shared

picture of a positive future.

•

Develop themselves with the goal of

improving overall group capabilities.

•

Solve real-world problems by

thinking clearly and engaging others.

•

Tell stories to motivate others

toward strategic goals.

•

Create a work environment in

which innovation can thrive.

•

Find ways to promote speed,

flexibility, and innovation.

Zone

5

– People:

Leaders connect

with others on the human level shared

by all to earn commitment, inspire

effort, and improve communication.

To succeed in this zone, leaders:

•

Read a range of emotions in others

and respond appropriately.

•

Adapt to the leadership needs of

different groups.

•

Help others resolve issues of

work-life balance.

•

Make a daily effort to inspire the

trust of customers and colleagues.

•

Minimize the negative human impact

of their decisions and actions.

•

Build and maintain a cross-functional

task network.

•

Communicate well with customers

and colleagues at all levels.

Zone

6

– Business:

Leaders develop

strategies, make and execute plans and

decisions, organize the work of others,

and guide effort toward predicted

results. To succeed in this zone, leaders:

•

Adapt quickly to changing business

conditions.

•

Manage the costs of operation.

•

Learn new ways to make the business

competitive.

•

Develop and implement effective

business plans.

•

Analyze and use hard data to

promote business results.

•

Manage customer acquisition,

retention, and lifetime value.

•

Add clarity to their organization’s

vision and values.

The Answer Today

What answer do these findings offer for

our earlier question about the difference

between a leader and a manager?

An analogy may illustrate: The zone

model suggests that the difference

between a manager and a leader is very

much like the difference between a

raisin and a grape.

If a raisin is a grape with something vital

missing – water – so a manager is

a leader with many vital things missing.

Through the lens of this model, a

“manager” is competent primarily in

one zone:

Business

. Managers make and

execute plans and decisions, organize

the work of others, and guide effort

toward predicted results.

“Leaders” must do these things, too,

but our study indicates that leaders

also demonstrate other interests and

abilities grouped in the model in the

other five zones:

Reflection, Society,

Diversity, Ingenuity

, and

People

.

Just as a raisin has vital nutritional

value, a “manager” has vital organiza-

tional value. In fact, survey respon-

dents at every level in every global

region consistently rated the Business

zone more highly than other zones –

and for good reason: without business

results, no one succeeds.

Business savvy alone is not enough 

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© 2010 AchieveGlobal, Inc. No. M01281 v. 1.0 (01/2010)

to meet the complex variety of

21

st-

century challenges:

•

More complex problems demand

greater

Reflection

.

•

Sustainable long-term strategy must

have a positive impact on

Society

.

•

Large-scale efforts need to leverage

Diversity

in all its forms.

•

Ingenuity

drives innovation, which

sharpens a competitive edge.

•

Motivating

People

must involve their

emotions as well as their minds.

By this definition, then, an effective

21

st-century leader moves smoothly

among the zones as conditions

demand, leveraging strengths from

each zone to address deficiencies and

ultimately succeed in the other zones.