Management is the organizational function that, like investment, gets things done efficiently, to gain the best return on all resources.
Management is an organizational function, like sales, marketing or finance. It doesn't necessarily mean managing people. We can manage ourselves or the material assigned to us at work. If you managed a project very well on your own, it would mean that you did the job in a well-organized, efficient manner, making good use of all resources at your disposal.
Management is like investment. Managers have resources to invest - their time, talent and, possibly, human resources. The goal (function) of management is to get the best return on such resources by getting things done efficiently. This doesn't imply being mechanical or narrowly controlling as some writers on management suggest. The manager's style is a personal or situational matter and it has evolved over time. With highly skilled and self-motivated knowledge workers, the manager must be very empowering. Where the workforce is less skilled or not very motivated, the manager may need to monitor output more closely. Skilled managers know how flex their style, coach and motivate diverse employees. Getting things done through people is what they do. By saying that management is a function, not a type of person or role, we can better account for self-managed work teams where no one is in charge. In a self-managed team, management is a group effort with no one being the designated manager.
A burning question is how management differs from leadership. For some, there is no difference. But increasing complexity drives ever greater specialization, so we really need to recognize that leadership and management are two different functions. This is the same as saying they serve two different purposes. A clear way of differentiating the two is to say that leadership promotes new directions while management executes existing directions as efficiently as possible. But the work of the manager is not just the mundane monitoring of daily operations. It includes getting the most complex projects done, like putting the first man on the moon. Unfortunately, management is mistakenly seen as task-oriented, controlling and insensitive to people's needs. By contrast, leaders are portrayed as emotionally engaging, visionary and inspiring. But, separating leadership from management in terms of style is a dead end, simply because leadership can be shown by quiet or forceful arguments based on hard facts. An inspiring leader induces us to change direction while an inspiring manager motivates us to work harder to get a tough job done on time.
The best managers are very strategic about themselves. They recognize that time and other resources are scarce, that competitive pressures demand efficient use of everything. Being strategic about themselves is the same thing as being a proactive, studious investor who regularly monitors his or her investments in order to shift them around to get a better return. Managers also have to be strategic about the business. It is not enough to do the work efficiently, it is essential to do the right things. Both of these imperatives can be thought of in terms of wise investment. Management is primarily a decision making role. Managers are charged with the responsibility to make a profit and this requires them to make sound decisions.
By contrast, leadership is strictly informal influence. Leaders persuade people to change direction. This way of thinking about leadership means that it is not a position and that there is no such thing as autocratic leadership. It is vitally important to recast leadership in this way. Otherwise, how can we explain the leadership of Martin Luther King who influenced the Supreme Court to outlaw segregation on buses without any formal authority over this body? We confuse ourselves when we call senior executives leaders. The truth is that they are managers by virtue of their positions and they only show leadership when they influence people informally, like Martin Luther King did, to change direction. Leadership is an occasional act; management is an ongoing role.
