Leadership vs. Management:

Which is Essential for Growing Your Business

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Author's Corner

In this white paper, Eric Sims, Client Services Strategic Director, delves into the essential roles of leadership and management, exploring how their collaboration is key to driving business growth.

Please click on the video to the right to learn more about the author, hear his insights on this white paper, and discover what motivated him to write about this topic.

To discuss this white paper in detail, please contact Eric using the information provided at the bottom of the page.

Executive Summary

Every business worldwide has one overarching objective… And that is to GROW. While each business desires to continue to grow faster, the ongoing debate of which is better, leaders vs. managers, still looms. This white paper explores the distinctive yet complementary roles of leaders and managers and how combining their unique qualities is essential to business growth.

Defining the Roles

Leaders have a vision for the long-term future of the business and inspire their teams to achieve them and take risks. They inspire change, drive innovation and strategic direction, and excel in communication, motivation, and influence.

Managers, in formalized roles, focus on daily operations, ensuring resources align with business goals. They excel in planning, prioritizing processes, and problem-solving.

Essential Qualities

The breakdown of the qualities associated with each role, which showcases where potential overlaps occur, is outlined in the image below.

Outsourcing Partner - Graph

Managers and leaders possess distinct, sometimes opposing qualities; not all managers are good leaders, and vice versa. Successful business growth requires both roles to collaborate, as managers focus on daily operations while leaders drive the big picture.

When a single individual embodies both managerial and leadership qualities, they seamlessly integrate strategic vision with operational efficiency. This person can inspire and motivate their team while simultaneously ensuring that day-to-day operations align with long-term goals. Their dual qualities enable them to both innovate and execute, driving sustainable business growth.

Notable Business Leader and Manager Duos

While there are many successful businesses in the world, a few jump out as significant for what they have accomplished. The growth these companies have had would not have been the same without each of these counterparts working together.

Together, these duos cultivated a place where strategic vision and operational excellence coexist, and because of that, these businesses have revolutionized the world.

  • Apple – Steve Jobs, CEO, and Tim Cook, COO.
  • Ford Motor Company – Henry Ford, Founder, and Jomes Couzens, VP & GM
  • Starbucks – Howard Schultz, CEO, and Orin Smith, COO
  • SpaceX – Elon Musk, CEO, and Gwynne Shotwell, COO

These companies, through the synergy of leadership and management, became leaders within their respective industries. Joe Fuller, Professor at Harvard Business School, recognizes, “The ultimate intersection between leadership and management is an appreciation for what motivates and causes individuals to behave the way they do, and the ability to draw out the best of them with a purpose in mind.”1

It’s Not Just About Who’s at the Top

Elon Musk is a household name, and it’s easy to identify him as a leader in his business ventures. However, most leaders in an organization make an impact as informal leaders or as managers with leadership qualities.

Having leaders throughout all levels of the business is imperative to generate significant business growth, not just in the present but for the future. These people positively impact the business in a multitude of ways as they are typically experienced, knowledgeable, and looked to by their peers for collaboration, guidance, and decision-making.

Business Growth for the Future Starts Now

Investing in personnel to develop future leaders and managers is truly important to driving current and long-term business growth. Only 10% of people are natural leaders — another 20% show some qualities of basic managerial talent that can be cultivated into high-quality leadership.2

Knowing this, there are employees who possess qualities and skills that need to be cultivated and developed. While 83% of organizations believe it’s important to develop leaders at every level of the company, only 5% of businesses have implemented leadership development at all levels.2

Conclusion

The growth of a business hinges on the synergy between leaders’ vision and inspiration and efficient execution driven by managers. It is imperative to understand the strengths of both leaders and managers and how they work together, complementing each other like pieces of a puzzle. Companies like Apple and SpaceX demonstrate that having leaders and managers at all levels is critical to business growth.

Combining the unique qualities of managers and leaders and having leaders throughout the organization enables businesses to achieve their one overarching objective: to grow.

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References:

1 https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/leadership-vs-management

2 Zippia. "35+ Powerful Leadership Statistics [2023]: Things All Aspiring Leaders Should Know" Zippia.com. Jun. 29, 2023, https://www.zippia.com/advice/leadership-statistics/

Byron James

Meet the Author

Eric Sims - Client Services Strategic Director

As Client Services Strategic Director at Vee Technologies, Eric Sims brings a wealth of expertise in guiding clients toward success through tailored, strategic approaches. With a deep understanding of client needs and operational goals, Eric ensures that every partnership is driven by a results-focused methodology. His ability to align Vee Technologies’ offerings with client objectives has been instrumental in fostering long-lasting relationships and driving measurable business outcomes.

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