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HBR CLASSIC

Managers and Leaders
Are They Different?

The Idea in Brief
Tough, persistent; smart, analytical; tolerant,
and of good will—all qualities you want in
your best managers. How else can they perform their jobs: solving problems and directing people and affairs?
But let’s face it: It takes neither genius nor
heroism to be a manager. Even highly valued managers don’t inflame employees’
passions and imagination. Nor do they
stimulate the change that all organizations
require. For those qualities, you need leaders, not managers.

COPYRIGHT © 2001 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

In this 1977 groundbreaking article, Abraham Zaleznik challenged the traditional
view of management. That view, he argued,
omits essential leadership elements of inspiration, vision, and human passion—which
drive corporate success.

The Idea in Practice
Attitudes
toward goals

MANAGERS

LEADERS

Take an impersonal, passive
outlook.

Take a personal, active outlook.
Shape rather than respond to
ideas. Alter moods; evoke images,
expectations.

Goals arise out of necessities,
not desires.

Change how people think about
what’s desirable and possible. Set
company direction.
Conceptions
of work

Relations
with others

Managers and leaders are two different animals. Leaders, like artists, tolerate chaos
and lack of structure. They keep answers in
suspense, preventing premature closure on
important issues. Managers seek order,
control, and rapid resolution of problems.

Negotiate and coerce. Balance
opposing views.

Develop fresh approaches to
problems.

Design compromises. Limit
choices.

Increase options. Turn ideas into
exciting images.

Avoid risk.

Seek risk when opportunities
appear promising.

Prefer working with people, but
maintain minimal emotional
involvement. Lack empathy.

Attracted to ideas. Relate to others
directly, intuitively, empat hetically.

Focus on process, e.g., how
decisions are made rather than
what decisions to make.
Communicate by sending
ambiguous signals. Subordinates
perceive them as inscrutable,
detached, manipulative.
Organization accumulates
bureaucracy and political intrigue.

Companies need both managers and leaders to excel. But too often, they don’t create
the right environment for leaders to flourish. Zaleznik offers a solution.
Sense of self

Comes from perpetuating and
strengthening existing institutions.

Focus on substance of events and
decisions, including their meaning
for participants.
Subordinates describe them with
emotionally rich adjectives; e.g.,
“love,” “hate.” Relations appear
turbulent, intense, disorganized.
Yet motivation intensifies, and
unanticipated outcomes
proliferate.
Comes from struggles to
profoundly alter human and
economic relationships.

Feel part of the organization.
Feel separate from the
organization.

Can Organizations Develop Leaders?
Zaleznik suggests two ways to develop leaders. First, avoid overreliance on peer-learning situations, e.g., task forces. They stifle the aggressiveness and initiative that fuel leadership.
Second, cultivate one-to-one relationships between mentors and apprentices; e.g., a CEO
chooses a talented novice as his special assistant. These close working relationships encourage
intense emotional interchange, tolerance of competitive impulses, and eagerness to challenge
ideas—essential characteristics of leadership.

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