How to Know When to Manage

Management is the act of coordinating various tasks and projects to achieve a particular goal. Managers often oversee a team and ensure they complete their tasks on time, understand what is expected of each team member, and coordinate the team’s efforts to ensure goals are achieved.

The basic operations of a manager include:

• Establishing objectives for individuals and teams
• Organizing tasks and the delegation of tasks
• Motivating a team of individuals to accomplish a common goal
• Helping team members set goals and advance in their careers
• Creating ways to measure the progress of tasks through key performance metrics

Leadership is a term used to defined as the act of motivating and inspiring others to work towards a common goal. Strong leaders are able to effectively communicate with team members and other individuals what needs to be done and why in a way that motivates them to take action. Leaders also play a role in how others act and ensure that employees perform the proper duties in an efficient and successful way to accomplish a goal.

Characteristics of a leader include:

• The ability to work independently
• Inspirational to team members or employees
• Focused on innovation
• Less worried about interpersonal issues when compared to managers
• Strong motivation skills
• Effective communication skills

Leading and managing are two important skills that individuals in positions of authority should have. While most authoritative figures do not lead or manage at all times, they often use these skills interchangeably based on the situation and needs of the employees or team. Knowing the differences between leading and managing will help you be a stronger leader no matter what position of authority you hold.

The following are the key differences between management and leadership in the workplace:

• Management is typically focused on accomplishing a particular task, while leadership is typically focused on a long-term goal or mission.
• Management often involves tangible results while leadership often involves results that are not easily measured.
• Management often centers around overseeing and controlling outcomes and individuals while leadership is typically focused on motivating and inspiring individuals to innovate.
• Leadership often takes rules and regulations into little account while management is focused on strictly abiding by rules and regulations.
• Managing focuses on maintaining the precise processes of work while leadership is focused on the larger picture.
• Leaders are more apt to coach team members and employees to help them grow in their positions while managers are concerned with delegating tasks and ensuring employees complete them by telling them exactly what to do and how to do it.

The following are situations in which managing a team versus leading a team is preferred or more effective:

• Times of crisis: During times of crisis, employees can easily become unorganized and confused as to what they need to do in their roles. Employees can lose morale which can quickly lead to reduced output and production for the organization. In this situation, it would be effective to take a manager’s role by making deliberate and timely decisions to help mitigate the situation.
• Overseeing projects with strict deadlines: When there is a strict deadline on tasks, there is often little time to worry about motivating and inspiring employees. Rather, a management approach would be more appropriate to ensure each employee knows when and how to complete their tasks in a successful and timely manner to keep the project on track.
• When a situation requires measurable results: Because management is focused on outcomes that are readily quantifiable, it’s important to manage people working on projects that require specific and measurable results.
• Training new employees: Another time in which management is preferred over leadership is when training new employees. Because new employees need to learn how and when to perform tasks, authoritative figures should be less focused on communicating trust and motivation and more focused on providing hands-on experience and monitoring progress.

The following are a few instances in which you should lead rather than manage:

• Your working with experienced and competent team members: Employees who require little oversight and have the relevant skills needed to complete tasks often benefit more from a leader than a manager.
• When a new approach is being used at work: Leadership is essential when introducing and implementing new ways of doing things at work. Good leadership skills allow the authoritative figure to encourage and motivate employees to accept the new approach and work towards implementing it in their daily work lives.
• When working on creative projects: Because leadership is more concerned with creativity and innovation than management, working on creative projects is often a good time to lead.

The following are several benefits of leadership and management:

• Leadership increases productivity in the workplace by motivating employees to complete tasks.
• Management allows for tasks to be completed in a more timely fashion.
• Leadership helps boost employee morale.
• Management ensures everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing and how to do it.
• Leadership fosters innovation and creativity.
• Management ensures a situation is controlled and moving in the right direction.
• Leadership allows individuals and organizations to focus on growth and development.
• Management helps make work processes more efficient to boost production.