Leader vs. Manager vs. Executive

Leader vs. Manager vs. Executive … one of these 3 terms does not belong here.

Which one? Leader! In business, leadership is a trait of a manager useful to exert formal authority in interacting with others. It is also a trait of the informal leaders, people that are managers of expertise.

Leadership is a concept to be discussed alone. There is no logical comparison between management and leadership because they are not opposite, but intertwined.

A manager is an administrator of people or knowledge. He takes care of people and the work environment and takes decision that must benefit those two. As long as a manager does not understand that he is not a boss with discretionary powers, he remains a stupid person, doing stupid things and abusing people.

An executive is a person that does things; he makes things happen by acting. From a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to an Account Executive, they are all people that execute action in order to reach organization’s objectives.

All the responsibilities in a job description can be grouped using the above two characteristics: administrator (manager) and executive (“action man”). When one takes precedence, it gives the name to that job: manager of “something” or a description of the main action that the respective employee must perform.

If we are to better define the manager component, we have to analyze it in comparison with the executive component of a job.

If we are to better define and understand leadership, we have to analyze its formal and informal components, the types of manifestation, and the followership trait (inside and outside the company).

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