When to manage and when to lead

Leaders motivate their teams to achieve their goals, while managers design strategies to achieve those goals. Although leadership and management are similar, there are important distinctions to be made.

This article discusses leadership and management skills, the key differences between leadership and management, and when to lead and when to lead your team.

What is leadership?

Leadership is the act of helping another person or group of people achieve a mutually agreed upon goal. Common qualities of leadership include the ability to motivate, inspire and encourage others to pursue and achieve their vision. Leadership is more about increasing results by assembling and retaining talented teams than it is about ensuring that management gets the job done.

Qualities of a leader

Specific examples of skills and traits of a leader in the workplace include:

1. Having a vision
2. Thinking strategically
3. Create a mission statement
4. Defines the team's purpose
5. Considers the strengths of each team member
6. Inspires behavior
7. Addresses unmet employee needs
8. Encourages commitment
9. Achieves long-term goals
10. Provides feedback
11. Motivates
12. Creates change
13. Takes calculated risks

How to measure effective leadership

Leadership effectiveness can be measured by the behavior of your team. Here are some ways to measure leadership effectiveness:

• Workplace happiness and employee satisfaction.
• Adherence to workplace policies
• Employee engagement
• Employee attrition
• Absenteeism
• Workplace culture
• Promotion rates

The overall job satisfaction of your employees is a great way to determine if your leadership style is effective.

What is management?

Management is the process of controlling or handling situations, things or people. The act of management can include coordinating, organizing and planning to ensure that a certain result is achieved. Managing a situation or team in the workplace often involves constantly re-evaluating and adjusting results to measure productivity and improve performance.

Qualities of a good manager 

Specific examples of workplace management skills and traits include:

1. Improves productivity and efficiency
2. Establishes processes and streamlines systems
3. Achieves the mission statement
4. Sets deadlines
5. Is organized
6. Creates budgets
7. Solves problems
8. Maintains quality
9. Demands action
10. Focuses on strategic planning
11. Creates order
12. Sets the rules
13. Corrects behavior
14. Minimizes risk

How to measure management

Effective management can be measured using traditional performance metrics such as:

• quantity and quality of results
• timeliness of results
• Respect of budgets
• Attendance
• Total revenue

If your team is not producing enough quality work on time, your management style may be hindering them.

Try to provide direct assistance to team members who are having difficulty completing a difficult task. Give them a goal to achieve, but let them decide how to get there if they are able. Check in regularly to see how your team is doing and give them specific direction if necessary.

Leadership vs. management

Although there are differences between leadership and management, both are crucial in the workplace. Here are some of the most important distinctions between leadership and management.

Here are some of the most important distinctions between leadership and management

 leading and managing at work:

• Leadership is often mission-based, while management is often based on accomplishing a specific task.
• Management involves strict adherence to rules, while leadership often involves creativity and innovation.
• Management is more focused on controlling people and results, while leadership is often about getting people to think outside the box.
• Management focuses on optimizing the execution of a process, while leadership focuses on optimizing a team as a whole.
• Management is more quantitative, while leadership is more qualitative.

Note: Leadership focuses on optimizing the culture and people, while management focuses on optimizing all components of the organization and project execution.

When to manage and when to lead

Knowing when to manage and when to lead can help build a cohesive team that works well in both positive and negative situations. If you lead when appropriate and manage when necessary, your team will perform much better and excel in their careers. Here are some examples of when it's better to lead rather than manage your employees.

When to manage your team

Here are some examples of situations in which you should manage your team:

• During a crisis or emergency situation
• For issues that involve processes or projects
• When training new team members
• When completing a job by a deadline
• When delegating important tasks
• When a situation requires specific results

Example: Let's say your employees are inexperienced with a new point-of-sale system your company is implementing. In this circumstance, your team members will need extra help. Help your employees by explaining exactly how to use the system, perhaps by offering an in-person training session, a video they can watch on their own time, or a how-to guide.

When to lead your team

When your employees are already producing good results and have strong abilities in their work, you can lead your team. When you are confident in their abilities but need to define the goal, your team members should be led rather than managed. It is advisable to lead your team:

• When employees are confident in their abilities and perform tasks effectively.
• When you can rely on your team members to accomplish the tasks assigned to them without micromanaging them.
• When you implement a new approach in the workplace
• During brainstorming sessions or team meetings

Example: Let's say your team meets weekly without an agenda, but you've noticed that the majority of your employees don't regularly participate or provide feedback. You decide to hold bi-weekly team meetings and set goals and an agenda for each one. You start each of these meetings with social time and set a time limit of 30-45 minutes. As a result, your team feels more engaged when it matters, and more people start contributing to the meetings.

Once you get used to your team and its needs, you will be able to approach each situation by asking yourself if your team needs to be managed, led or a combination of both. The more you get to know your team, the easier it will be to identify their needs. New employees may need more direct management until they are more confident and competent in their roles. Experienced employees who are highly skilled can do better with minimal direction.

Background checks are an important aspect of both leadership and management roles. Employers may conduct background checks to verify a candidate's education and employment history, criminal record, and credit history, among other things. For leadership roles, a background check may be conducted to ensure that the candidate has the necessary skills, experience, and character traits to lead a team effectively. For management roles, a background check may be conducted to verify that the candidate has the necessary knowledge and experience to manage people and projects successfully. Conducting thorough background checks can help employers make informed hiring decisions and mitigate potential risks to the company.