Leading People; Managing Things

Leader vs manager
Connie, USA
Leaders lead, managers manage. The two are very different. PEOPLE cannot normally "be managed"; they can however, follow leaders (good or bad). Leadership is a personal investment of time and energy in not only telling staff the organizational priorities, but exhibiting behaviors that show "walking the walk". Exceptional managers, in my experience, manage processes; exceptional leaders show us how to meet the personal and organizationsl goals.

Level 5 Leader
Kaycee, India
Great thought process. The essential difference in a Manager and a Leader is while the effectiveness of the manager is determined by "Available resources, Optimal utilization and Maximum output", the effectiveness of a leader is determined by "When in doubt - Show the way" to his team.

Leaders Manage Managers to Lead...
Sigge Sandstrom, CEO, Finland
I guess we would need to include Bosses here as well:-) Seriously though my favorite phrase, guiding light has been that I want to:
"LEAD people and MANAGE the numbers they create".
Sometimes I have bad numbers to manage (it happened once:O) and sometimes those numbers are really pleasant to manage. Anyway, the point is that the numbers I have to deal with reflects the Leadership I have exposed my subordinates to.
This approach works for me as it helps me keep the finger on the pulse when it comes to my personal leadership. I am a strong believer that you can learn to be a good leader. It comes with a prerequisite though: It all starts with You! If you do not have the fire burning for to lead... Then you can never ever be a good leader. Impossible to be promoted to a great leader. That is a lifelong quest that you need to have a huge inner bonfire going to get you there. Last not least, a leader ALWAYS WALKS THE TALK!