A great article by the great John Kotter examines the difference between “management” and “leadership” in the Harvard Business Review: Management Is (Still) Not Leadership.
The difference, Dr. Kotter says, “is not about attributes, it’s about behavior.” Both are critical roles, and have not very much to do with your position in an organization:
Management helps you to produce products and services as you have promised, of consistent quality, on budget, day after day, week after week.
Leadership is about vision, about people buying in, about empowerment and, most of all, about producing useful change.
I am more of a leader than a manager. There are plenty of others who are better managers than me. And I am better leader when I am surrounded by great managers. Creating change almost always requires the help of others.