- Management and leadership are vital activities in any organization, and keeping the two aligned gives the organization a significant competitive advantage.
- Professionals were once promoted into management almost exclusively on technical competence, because in that era every problem and decision was resolved through operational technical procedures.
- Technical competence remains indispensable for managing a business, but it does not necessarily contribute to leading people.
- An organization can have excellent planning, budgets, processes and quality and still underperform if it lacks strong leadership to define, influence and direct people toward a vision and strategy.
Management and leadership are vital activities within any organization. Leaders at the top and those in intermediate positions who are genuinely committed to the company must maintain management aligned with leadership in order to provide the organization with a significant competitive advantage.
In the past, professionals were promoted to management roles almost exclusively on the strength of their technical competencies. A professional who demonstrated technical knowledge and skill was quickly identified as a potential leader. This happened because the leaders of that era had deep technical mastery, and that was precisely what was valued. Every problem, every decision, was resolved through operational technical procedures, and from this "new managers and leaders emerged."
What competencies does a manager need today?
Today, organizations have begun to awaken to the need to broaden their thinking and models around what their leaders and managers actually need. Technical competencies alone are no longer sufficient to run an organization or guide a team. A manager needs a portfolio of both leadership and management competencies: relational, social, emotional, and business competencies, in addition to technical ones.
Technical competence remains indispensable. It enables and provides the conditions to manage the business. But it does not necessarily contribute to leading people. We often trust a manager who brings ideas, concepts, experience, and solves day-to-day problems through technical competence, and rightly so. However, it will be leadership, and the behavioral profile of the leader, that builds a vision of the future, develops a strategy, communicates it broadly, and engages people to bring it to life.
How do management and leadership work together?
This vision of the future and the strategy it generates provide direction for people, establish priorities, and create the adjustments necessary for an organizational management system. An organization can have excellent planning, budgets, efficient processes, organization and control, production and quality, and still underperform if it lacks strong leadership to define, influence, and direct people toward that vision and strategy.
Management and leadership together form a vital, interdependent system of support, growth, and sustainability. They create a fundamental and essential condition of such importance that every leader should prioritize it in their working agenda, so they do not run the risk of becoming absent, apathetic, and limited, and becoming prime candidates for decline.
The invitation is clear: include genuine leadership in your management practice, and allow your organization to truly flourish.
The short answer
Management and leadership are distinct but interdependent: management supplies the planning, processes and control that make a business run, while leadership builds a vision of the future, develops a strategy, communicates it broadly and engages people to bring it to life. Technical competence alone is no longer sufficient, so a manager needs relational, social, emotional and business competencies alongside it. Every leader should prioritize this alignment in their working agenda rather than risk becoming absent, apathetic and limited.