To understand leadership, it is important to grasp the difference between leadership and management. We get a clue from the standard conceptualization of the functions of management: planning, organizing, directing (or leading), and controlling. Leading is a major part of a manager’s job; yet a manager must also plan, organize, and control.

Broadly speaking, leadership deals with the interpersonal aspects of a manager’s job, whereas planning, organizing, and controlling deal with the administrative aspects. Leadership deals with change, inspiration, motivation, and influence. If these views are taken to their extreme, the leader is an inspirational figure, and the manager is a stodgy bureaucrat mired in the status quo. But we must be careful not to downplay the importance of management.

Effective leaders have to be good managers themselves or be supported by effective managers. John O’Leary, a leadership development specialist, investigated whether leaders and managers really carry out different activities. His method was to conduct interviews of eight experienced leaders in business, government, and college sports.

O’Leary’s general finding was that leaders and managers tend to have a different focus on the same set of activities. One finding was that managers delegate largely as a method of increasing efficiency. In contrast, leaders delegate as an approach to empowerment. Another key finding was that leaders focus more on people, and mangers focus more on results.