How to Define Leadership and Managment

"Historically, writers who have tried to define leadership as something different from management have focused on what it means to be in charge of a group"--Mitch McCrimmon Ph.D

Mitch McCrimmon has over 30 years experience in executive assessment and coaching, and he has written many articles on leadership. One of his articles "How to Define Leadership and Management" This article talks about the shift in definition of leadership and management and with how times are changing, the definitions are changing as well.

The new definition that Mitch creates is "we should say that management takes care of everything to do with execution, leaving leadership to promote new products and services, to challenge the status quo and advocate a better way."

I agree with this "new" definition of management and leadership, it is what we have talked about in the class and in the book, but it makes more of a defined line between the two. I think that this works in black and white situations, as in a company where there is a product you are selling and you need the leaders to get out and sell that and the managers to figure out how to sell it--however there isn't always a situation that is black and white like that. In some companies the manager IS the leader as well.

I do think though, giving the managers and leaders a solid definition it does help to better define them in the workplace and give them "roles" and goals to achieve