In October 2009, my shortest blog post (appropriately) asked how I could have 23 devoted Twitter followers if I’d never tweeted. The point being that you can’t follow a stationary object. Just for the record, I’ve decided to start tweeting, but I’m still working out my strategy. I don’t want to be a random tweeter. But that’s not the point I want to make here.
Over the last two years, I’ve tried to come up with working definitions of leadership and management. I’ve struggled with understanding where the murky swampland between the two firms up on either bank. And I’ve rejected numerous definitions as being too simplistic. Or too biased.
It hit me that the main requirement for leadership is that you have followers. That suggests two parts to a working definition:
- First, it’s not about position, but about influence. Position or no position, whether you feel like a leader or not, it’s clear: if you have followers, you’re a leader. The opposite implication is just as true.
- Second, you can’t have followers if you’re not moving. Therefore, leadership implies change.
Therefore, let me give the definitions a stab. Feel free to add your thoughts.
Leadership: the stewardship of one’s personal authority over others to set their pace and direction.
Management: the stewardship of one’s positional authority to maximize the use of resources toward the previously-set pace and direction.
A few clarifications. I don’t think it’s fair to say, as some do, that managers protect the status quo. Managers encourage movement toward the ends, but they don’t try to change the pace or define the direction as much as rearticulate the vision.
I also think it’s worth defining what I mean by personal authority and positional authority. These terms are attempts to specify the source of a leader’s influence, borrowed from Dr. Paul Hersey. Positional authority or power is the capacity to influence others by one’s dominant organizational position. In contrast, personal power is the capacity to influence others by one’s own being.
So, there you are. Give me your reaction to these definitions. With your help, maybe we can craft something worthwhile.
the back row leader 
Here is a valid differentiation between a leader and a manager … thanks Roy for your reflection!
At different times I may fill both roles … sometimes as the person in the middle (between the visionary leader and the follower) one becomes a manager implementing someone else’s vision. That can be an awkward spot! My best role is when the vision is my own, flaming into passion – even if not original with me! As a Christ follower, our leadership is never original with us … but must become incarnated within us! The vision and the passion must be CHRIST! And Christ must be fresh in my heart if I am to lead others.
Great points, Steph. I’m right with you in saying our vision starts with Christ and originates from Him. In some senses, then, we’re all implementers of vision.