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!
