Management | Origin: LS101R
This is a general discussion forum for the following learning topic:
Do You Manage Or Lead? --> Management
Post what you've learned about this topic and how you intend to apply it. Feel free to post questions and comments too.
A manager ensures things are done right. A leader ensures the right things are done with the future in mind. There are many myths about each role.
What I learned from this course is the difference between leadership and management. I now understand that leadership is about inspiring guiding and influencing other toward a shared visin, while management focuses more on organizing, planning, and ensuring tasks are completed efficiently. I feel that with leadership, I learned more about how to inspire other to woek effectively and stay motivated toward a common goal.
Being a good leader is not the same as being as being a good manager. The skills required to be a good leader include being able to encourage and inspire others to perform at a high level; a good leader has passion to get others to excel. The qualities of a good manager involve management of schedules, reports, and working with higher-ups to attain company goals. However, a good manager must possess good leadership skills to encourage and inspire their team to increase production. As an instructor, I recognized the need to have qualities of both a leader (inspire and encourage) and a manager (class and classroom management).
One key lesson I gained from this module is the clear distinction between management and leadership. While the two are often used interchangeably, I learned that they require different mindsets and skill sets. Management focuses on processes, organization, planning, and ensuring tasks are completed efficiently. Leadership, on the other hand, is centered on vision, motivation, influence, and guiding people toward shared goals.
Understanding this difference helped me reflect on my own practice. I intend to apply what I learned by being more intentional about when I am managing and when I am leading. For example, during structured tasks or compliance‑related responsibilities, I will apply stronger management skills. However, when working with students or colleagues on growth, morale, or change, I plan to lean more on leadership behaviors—such as active listening, inspiring confidence, and modeling the values I want the team to adopt.
Overall, this module helped me recognize that strong leaders often need to balance both roles, and being aware of that distinction can make me more effective in my professional environment.
A manager's role is to set clear direction, support their team, and drive accountability to achieve shared goals.
Comment on Davina Jones's post: I agree with this sentiment. Many management roles are not being filled by people who have people skills. Although their outcomes and outlooks may be great that does not equate to efficient leadership.
Managing is more task oriented, leading is the ability to influence and inspire others towards a goal.
I learned that a while a specific skill set is required to be an effective manager, possessing those skills does necessarily mean an individual can influence change in others or compel them to follow directives.
I like the myths. I have believed most of them at one time or another, but now that I'm in management, I see where those are false.
Being a good manager is crucial to a successful workplace. We all have worked for people that made our jobs harder. We try to get away from people like that and change jobs. In that way, managers contribute to the longevity of workers as well.
La gestión y el liderazgo son funciones distintas pero complementarias: mientras la gestión se enfoca en la eficiencia, el orden y la ejecución técnica mediante la planificación y el control, el liderazgo se centra en la visión, la innovación y la capacidad de inspirar a otros. Un error común es asumir que un alto desempeño técnico garantiza habilidades de mando, cuando en realidad el éxito de un administrador depende de su capacidad para habilitar el talento ajeno y construir influencia más allá de la autoridad jerárquica. Al subir de nivel, el profesional descubre la paradoja de tener más poder pero menos libertad individual debido a la interdependencia con su equipo, lo que exige transformar el control en facilitación y la pasión en resultados colectivos para que la visión organizacional se convierta en realidad.
One insight that I can relate to is the myth that top performers make excellent management candidates. I agree that it is not necessarily true. I've known people who were very productive and highly successful as an individual contributor but struggled to lead a small team. They had a hard time relating to the different personalities of their team along with the varying skill sets. I've also seen people who were promoted to management because they were charismatic and had the gift of gab, but struggled to grasp the technical details of the work that their team did on a daily basis. One of the lesson flip cards mentioned that though many people have the traits required to manage, they often don’t have the unique combination of traits to not only be technically adept but also people-centered, emotionally intelligent and solution focused.
While a manager focuses on processes and efficiency, a leader focuses on people and direction. Although one person can be both a manager and a leader, understanding the difference helps clarify priorities. As a leader, recognizing this distinction allows me to spend less time just controlling tasks and more time motivating, supporting, and empowering others, which ultimately makes me more effective and productive in my role.
A good manager definitely needs good people skills, needs to be goal oriented, and be able to persuade others while at the same time meeting best practice business goals of the organization.
I have several staff members that are leaders - highly capable, high performance level, etc. but have no desire to be a manager. They want to do their job to the best of their ability, but they don't want to be responsible for the entire department and the jobs of others. That's the difference. A leader can perform at a high level in their role, and set examples for others. A manager is responsible for everyone's role and job performance.
Being a manager is not the same as being a leader. Managers are necessary to ensure that work gets done, is done well, and is completed on time. A leader gives direction but also works alongside their employees, providing the tools and support needed to accomplish tasks and motivating them. The myth that a manager is the same as a leader is not true: a manager has employees, a leader has followers.
I found it very interesting to reflect on the differences between leadership and management, especially the idea that strong performance alone doesn’t automatically prepare someone to manage others. What stood out to me is how management requires a different set of skills—such as developing people, providing structure, and supporting long-term goals—that go beyond individual achievement. The myths around management were also eye-opening, particularly how often we confuse being a high performer with being ready to lead a team. This module really helped clarify the distinction and the unique value both roles bring to an organization.
Faculty always battle with this. They go into teaching to LEAD...but many of their tasks are managerial. They have to taught to understand the process for the growth into leadership in the class.
There's a fine line that blurs the lines between leadership and management, which I've just learned about. Leadership is more about the skills a person develops to make things happen, while management is about how projects are executed; it's a more administrative approach.
