Managers and Leaders

PMI defines a project manager as one who is responsible for project management, and now defines project management as the application of knowledge, tools and techniques to project activities. However, these definitions only focus on the administrative aspects of project work. Many well-known authors have written about managers and, especially recently, about leadership. Generally, these authors see a distinction according to the primary focus of the leader or manager.

This table shows the respective positions of leaders and managers on a number of issues. It is a truism that leaders focus on doing "the right thing" while managers focus on doing "the thing right".

Subject	Managers focus on	Leaders focus on
Seeks	Goals & Objectives	Vision
Wants	Results	Achievements
Persuasion	Telling How & When	Selling What & Why
Horizon	Short-term	Long-term
Essence	Stability	Change
Dynamic	Reactive	Proactive
	Consistency	Flexibility
Style	Transactional[1]	Transformational[2]
Focus	Managing organization, structure & work	Leading people
Approach	Plans detail	Sets direction
Rules	Makes	Breaks
	Procedures	Policy
Direction	Existing roads	New roads
Have	Subordinates	Followers
Appeal to	Head	Heart
Exchange	Money for work	Excitement for work & challenging
Power	Formal authority	Personal charisma
Decision	Makes	Facilitates
	Autocracy	Democracy
Likes	Action	Striving
Energy	Control	Passion/Directing
Culture	Enacts	Shapes
	Conforming	Enabling
	Maintaining	Developing
	Imitating	Originating
	Administrating	Innovating
	Bottom line	Top line
Conflict	Avoids	Uses
Risk	Minimizes	Takes
	Risk-accidence	Risk-opportunity
Truth	Establishes	Seeks
Credit	Takes	Gives
Blame	Blames	Takes
Concern	Being right	What is right
	Good Managers do Things Right	Good Leaders do Right Things
What about doing right things right?!

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[1] People are motivated by reward and punishment. Social systems work best with a clear chain of command. When people have agreed to do a job, a part of the deal is that they cede all authority to their manager. The prime purpose of a subordinate is to do what their manager tells them to do.

[2] People will follow a person who inspires them. A person with vision and passion can achieve great things. The way to get things done is by injecting enthusiasm and energy.

This is, of course, an illustrative characterization, and there is a whole spectrum between either ends of these scales along which each role can range. And many people lead and manage at the same time, and so may display a combination of behaviors.