What you’ll learn to do: Describe the history, context and utility of the distinction between leadership and management

The ideas of leadership and management were developed independently and under vastly different circumstances. The concept of the “great man” was the birth of the idea of leadership, celebrating the qualities and accomplishments of men who changed the world. The idea of “management,” which included the study of employee tasks to determine which methods of performance were most productive and profitable, came from a very different, more pedestrian place. Management was a means to an end. Leadership was almost godlike.

Today, there’s less of a divide between “leader” and “manager.”  So much so, that we contemplate and argue the differences between the two functions.