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Leadership

Leadership vs. Management: A Delicate Balance

October 2, 20144 min readBy Jeremy Erard

SDI Clarity Insight — This article is part of our Knowledge Base, drawing on 20+ years of organizational design and talent development expertise. Explore our Leadership Development and Talent Consulting services.

Leadership continues to be a very important topic for most organizations as they evolve and grow. While conducting research for a recent client engagement, I asked several business leaders to explain what they believed made a good leader. I was surprised at many of the responses.

"Is it just me or have the terms leadership and management almost become synonymous?"

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For me, leadership is about a person's ability to inspire or influence others to work together toward a common goal regardless of title or position. Management is a skill set where an individual sets goals and expectations for those that they are responsible for and holds them accountable for achievement and performance.

I believe that all organizations need to support the development of leaders in their organizations. However, high performing leaders of organizations also need to be effective managers in order to achieve consistent success. As you look at yourself and other leaders within your organization and how they function, ask yourself... Are they more of a leader, or a manager?

Being able to answer "both" is something worth pursuing.

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