QUESTION 2
DO I MANAGE OR LEAD PEOPLE?
Why it’s important: Increasingly organisations are looking for managers with leadership skills/potential – especially when looking to fill senior positions and board vacancies.
The reality is that in every organisation managers are required to lead and leaders are required to manage. But if you spend all your time on the management activities (see column one in the table below) you will be perceived as a manager. To be seen as a leader, or someone with leadership potential, you need to get stuck into the activities in column two.
| Managers are concerned with: | Leaders are concerned with: |
| The present | The future |
| Plans | Vision |
| Maintenance of systems | The big picture |
| Maintaining the status quo | Change ... |
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