A Leader versus A Manager

In my work with schools, I regulary engage in conversation and reflection with school administrators about what good leadership looks like.  Opinions range on this question and in my experience often depend on the type of school setting, and the school culture.  What passes as good leadership in one school, may not in another.  However, in all of these exchanges there is a clear sense that a good school head must not succomb to simply managing.  In todays economic climate that becomes tantamount to rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic.

Here are a few interesting excerpts that speak to the difference between leading and managing:

 "Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing" (Bennis & Nanus, 1985, p. 21). Burns (1978) describes managers as transactors and leaders as transformers. Managers concern themselves with the procurement, coordination, and distribution of human and material resources needed by an organization (Ubben & Hughes, 1987). The skills of a manager facilitate the work of an organization because they ensure that what is done is in accord with the organization's rules and regulations. The skills of a leader ensure that the work of the organization is what it needs to be. Leaders facilitate the identification of organizational goals. They initiate the development of a vision of what their organization is about. "Management controls, arranges, does things right; leadership unleashes energy, sets the vision so we do the right thing" (Bennis & Nanus, 1985, p. 21).

 The central theme of the research is that those who find themselves supervising people in an organization should be both good managers and good leaders. As Duttweiler and Hord (1987) stated, "the research shows that in addition to being accomplished administrators who develop and implement sound policies, procedures, and practices, effective administrators are also leaders who shape the school's culture by creating and articulating a vision, winning support for it, and inspiring others to attain it" (p. 65).