3 Common Myths About Management | HBS Online

It’s possible to be a great manager and not a great leader, or vice versa. Rarely, individuals are both at the same time.

The minute a process needs to be changed, either because of internal or external forces, the manager who lacks leadership ability often struggles to “rally the troops” to a new normal. Similarly, a great leader who has little managerial skills can pull a team in several directions with too much vision, creating a lot of noise but little in the way of results. It’s critical that great managers either learn leadership skills or align themselves with good leaders.

The title “manager” implies exactly this. The Oxford Dictionary defines “manage” as to “be in charge of (a company, establishment, or undertaking).” Surely that means, as a manager, you command and people jump? If only it were that simple.

No matter the title, you don’t inspire people by pointing at something and saying, “Do that!” Rather, you bring them along by giving them a reason to “do that.” What sort of reason? It just needs to make sense; it needs to tie the work to some end objective.