{"id":729,"date":"2022-12-19T11:05:28","date_gmt":"2022-12-19T16:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/school-of-management-leadership\/?p=729"},"modified":"2026-03-12T15:43:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T19:43:32","slug":"management-and-leadership-an-alternative-to-traditional-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/school-of-management-leadership\/2022\/12\/19\/management-and-leadership-an-alternative-to-traditional-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Management and leadership: An alternative to traditional thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What makes a great leader or a great manager? Is there a difference? Leadership coach Marsha King gives her perspective on these questions and more.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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By Marsha King<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Marsha
Marsha King<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Which is more important \u2014 leadership or management? Is there a difference between leadership and management? Do all leaders manage people? Do all managers lead people? Do managers become leaders when they reach a certain organizational level? Can a front-line employee be a great leader? Can a senior executive be a not-so-great leader? What do great managers do? What do great leaders do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you can see by the sampling above, the questions we could ask about the topics of leadership and management are as endless as the number of opinions (notice I didn\u2019t say \u201canswers\u201d) we would find from any number of sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an executive coach, I try to avoid getting bogged down in these questions, definitions, nuances or strict boundaries when I work with my clients and help those I coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, I focus on the person and the goals they\u2019re trying to achieve or the problems they\u2019re trying to solve. In other words, I focus on \u2014 and help them focus on \u2014 what matters to them and what will help them improve their performance as a manager, a leader and a person overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I take this \u201chelping\u201d approach, I find that the focus of our efforts often fluctuates between matters of leadership (for example, helping a leader inspire a fatigued organization of 1,000 people), management (helping a manager to take action on a poor performer) and personal effectiveness (opening up the calendar to free up time for more important work).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could argue that each of these three examples contains elements of leadership, management and personal effectiveness. I don\u2019t let myself or the person I am coaching get distracted by whether they\u2019re becoming a better leader or a better manager. Instead, I focus on whether they are achieving their goals, solving problems and becoming more effective to those around them and to their organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When individuals become more effective, those around them \u2014 peers, direct reports, customers, managers \u2014 will likely notice and deem them a better leader, a better manager, a better employee or even a better person. Removing the distraction of the leader\/manager label opens the space to focus on what matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article was first published as part of 52 Weeks of Leadership, a program hosted by the University at Buffalo School of Management\u2019s Center for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness (CLOE).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marsha King, PhD, facilitates CLOE\u2019s Leadership Coaching Certification, a four-course program where participants build leadership coaching skills through hands-on experience and gain expertise in assessment and feedback. King is a leadership coach with a focus on emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, change management and performance improvement.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What makes a great leader or a great manager? Is there a difference? Leadership coach Marsha King gives her perspective on these questions and more. Continue reading Management and leadership: An alternative to traditional thinking<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,47],"tags":[11,126,4,86,29],"class_list":["post-729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership","category-professional-development","tag-cloe","tag-executive-coaching","tag-leadership","tag-leadership-development","tag-management"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t