Managers and Leaders are not the same thing
There is always a lot of talk about managers and leadership, but I sometimes have the feeling there is a little confusion on the subject.
I can agree that a manager needs to have leadership qualities, as some other key soft skills, but leadership, per se, is not enough.
Wait, this means that a great leader can’t be also a great manager?
Exactly, a manager need leadership skills to be good, but this is only one of the several skills he need.
He should be able to understand the job heshe is asked to do, this means to have the correct technical and soft skills.
There is a risk connected with leadership: leadership needs to walk hand in hand with honesty and ethics, otherwise we risk to have leaders without soul.
Think about Charles Manson, or Adolf Hitler or some of the most evil serial killers, were they not also leaders?
Manipulative attitude common to many sociopaths are often seen as leadership skills, so leadership has to be one but not the only skills required to a manager.
Lack of empathy toward others are often a sign also of many successfull “managers” that makes their career on many other bodies, and is quite a common portrait in the financial sector (but not only), where dehumanization is at the basic of the speculation activities (it is business, workforce are just numbers on a spreadsheet).
So are we talking too much about leadership? Probably yes, we should talk about leadership in a context that require other strong soft skills, and mostly we should talk about management.
what do you think?
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