Strategic Management vs. Leadership

The terms Strategic Management and Leadership are often used interchangeably. The prefix 'strategic' before management makes people believe that it has something to do with leadership skills. However, in a nutshell, strategic management is one of the many skills that a good leader must possess. While it is not difficult to distinctly define the two, both these terms are often interconnected. Let us explore some of the similarities and differences between these two terms. 

Managers and Leaders   

It is a common mistake to assume managers for leaders. Using misleading terms such as 'team leaders' for managers invoke even more confusion. However, one must understand that there is a significant difference between the core responsibilities of managers and leaders. While managers are more concerned with running day-to-day activities of an organization as per a predefined plan, leaders are more involved with 'making' of these plans. In simple words, leaders formulate policies while managers implement them. Some of the differentiating aspects of managers and leaders are:

• Managers are often resistant to change and focus on dispatching their duties as per a pre-defined strategy.

• The very source of a leader's existence comes from the need to 'change'. Leaders sense the changing behaviors of internal (employees, organization) and external (client, market, competitors etc.) entities and bring about necessary changes in the organizational policies. 

• Managers are more concerned with maintaining status-quo, whereas leaders associate themselves with the mission and vision of an organization. 

Strategic Management and Leadership

Strategic management is closely associated with leadership. It is different in a way that strategic managers do not blindly follow the policies. They implement advanced performance metrics to assess the performance of their employees and actively participate in the appraisal process. They focus on the core competencies of the employees and align their tasks accordingly. In fact, they are instrumental in creating future leaders.  

Strategic managers are not resistant to change. In fact, they are pivotal in bringing about changes that can positively impact the organizational development. Strategic managers possess comprehensive knowledge about the organization; hence prove to be a valuable resource in critical tasks such as initiating planning, execution, control and evaluation. Strategic managers supervise and coordinate technological, material, financial and human resources of an organization. Their objective is to help an organization and its stakeholders to achieve the stipulated goals and mission effectively. 

Last but not the least; management is a position that is assigned to an individual whereas leadership is a quality that renders him followers!