Management vs. Leadership

Leadership is a more important skill set than management.

Being able to lead “from the front” rather than “from the top” is more beneficial. Successfully getting people to willingly follow your lead is incredibly powerful, and to do this you must be a great leader.

As the owner of a startup business, I have found myself filling the shoes of many different roles including both leadership and management. I find myself using management skills when it comes to planning, organizing and coordinating staff. I use leadership skills when it comes to inspiring and motivating them to perform to the best of their ability. Although both are important, a leadership skill set has proven to be way more powerful in my company. According to an article written on LinkedIn:

Leaders help organizations and people to grow, while a manager’s greatest accomplishment comes from making work processes more effective. Leadership breeds loyalty, dedication, and accountability. Leaders inspire, motivate, and influence their teams and assist them in reaching their goals and achieving their highest possible performance. ‘Leadership is an art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible’ ~Colin Powell.

According to web page Visual Capitalist, 72% of people believe that effective leadership is crucial in their organization. Based on financial performance, companies with poor leadership underperform by 42%, and companies that show great leadership skills overperform by 42%, which is an incredibly wide gap. This data truly shows how crucially important leadership skills are when it comes to success.

Personally, having great leadership skills means having the capacity to lead a team of people towards a common vision, which could be incredibly powerful and useful when it comes to accomplishing a goal. The very first thing I do when hiring staff for my business is explaining to them where my company is at now, where I want it to be in the future, and what it is going to take to get there. By ensuring my entire team is on the same page, I feel it empowers them and allows them to work to their fullest potential to achieve that shared goal, representing leadership. Good leaders are role models for the people they lead. Leaders motivate people and support people. Good leadership translates to long-term success.