What is the difference between leaders and managers
For a long time now, there have been numerous heated debates on what differentiates a manager from leader. People have, on many occasions, mistaken leaders for managers and used the words interchangeably. These two words are surprisingly very closely related and yet so different. In an organizational setting, leaders and managers play vital roles. The main difference between leaders and managers is that leaders inspire, motivate, and influence people through actions to work and attain set goals. Managers, on the other hand, are more concerned with the administration and supervision aspect of an organization.
Let’s look at the two main differences between a manager and a leader
Leaders inspire while managers plan
Leaders focus on inspiring and motivating people by praising small steps of success. Leaders will engage their team in setting up objectives that are accomplishable and then inspires and motivates them through the journey of actualizing the vision. They are more concerned with instilling confidence in people to be better and accomplish more when working as a team rather than in solitary. Managers, in contrast, work by planning, finding faults, and coming up with solutions to solve them. They are more concerned with setting objectives, controlling, and monitoring activities to ensure that the set objectives are attained or even better exceeded.
Leaders are risk-takers; managers are risk evasive
Leaders are open-minded and are always willing to try new things without fear of failure. They are ready to explore new ideas that seem promising to achieve bigger and better things. Managers, on the other hand, focus on minimizing any risk that may have adverse effects on the organization. They will take necessary measures to avoid problems through close monitoring and controlling all the activities within the organization.
This brings us to the big question, is leadership an inborn trait, or can it be taught?
According to various studies, leaders are not born, but rather, they evolve with time as one grows. Leadership develops from the passion and the willingness of an individual to help other people in society. Besides education, learning from real-life situations equips one with skills, knowledge, and experience that can also trigger one to becoming a leader. Leaders are very persuasive, selfless, and committed individuals. A good leader has both natural and acquired traits like confidence, excellent communication skills, integrity, and trustworthiness.
Leaders and managers are two different people. However, they are also closely linked together and complement each other. A good manager must be able to plan, organize, and coordinate the staff while at the same time, inspire and motivate employees to work towards achieving the organizational goals.

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