The skillsets required of a Leader are different from those required of a Manager.
The Manager wears the hat of the tactician, tending to approach his work in a fairly rigid context, with a tight focus on performance based on accounting periods of some length (month, quarter, fiscal year, etc.) Because of this type of constraint, the manager is almost forced to view his activities as involving a unending series of self-contained, unconnected, or at best, loosely-connected, independent operations. He lives in the present or the near future and works primarily under conditions characterized by a larger number of certainties compared to uncertainties.
The Leader, on the other hand, wears the hat of the strategist, viewing his activities as involving an unending progression of interdependent operations that are connected in an unbroken chain on a specified course leading to a particular destination defined by the mission statement of the organization. He lives in the medium and long term future and works under conditions characterized by a larger number of uncertainties compared to certainties.
As a practical matter, because the number of people who feel comfortable dealing with certainties is greater than the number of those who feel comfortable dealing with uncertainties, more people feel comfortable wearing the Manager Hat than feel comfortable wearing the Leader Hat.
There is, of course, no prohibition against one person wearing both hats...as long as he has both skillsets and feels comfortable wearing either hat. Of course, it is easy to see that certain difficulties will arise when one person tries to wear the two hats simultaneously.
The Manager wears the hat of the tactician, tending to approach his work in a fairly rigid context, with a tight focus on performance based on accounting periods of some length (month, quarter, fiscal year, etc.) Because of this type of constraint, the manager is almost forced to view his activities as involving a unending series of self-contained, unconnected, or at best, loosely-connected, independent operations. He lives in the present or the near future and works primarily under conditions characterized by a larger number of certainties compared to uncertainties.
The Leader, on the other hand, wears the hat of the strategist, viewing his activities as involving an unending progression of interdependent operations that are connected in an unbroken chain on a specified course leading to a particular destination defined by the mission statement of the organization. He lives in the medium and long term future and works under conditions characterized by a larger number of uncertainties compared to certainties.
As a practical matter, because the number of people who feel comfortable dealing with certainties is greater than the number of those who feel comfortable dealing with uncertainties, more people feel comfortable wearing the Manager Hat than feel comfortable wearing the Leader Hat.
There is, of course, no prohibition against one person wearing both hats...as long as he has both skillsets and feels comfortable wearing either hat. Of course, it is easy to see that certain difficulties will arise when one person tries to wear the two hats simultaneously.
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