The Detailed Distinction Between Leading People And Managing People is an important topic that can help individuals better understand their roles and responsibilities as leaders and managers, and implement more effective leadership and management practices.
Understanding the differences between leading and managing people can help individuals identify their strengths and weaknesses as leaders and managers, and make necessary adjustments to become more effective. It can also improve communication, motivation, and productivity within the team.
By learning more about the detailed distinction between leading and managing people, individuals can gain a deeper understanding of their roles and responsibilities, and feel more confident and competent in their leadership and management abilities.
To learn more about the detailed distinction between leading and managing people, individuals can seek out resources such as my blog to learn more about the detailed distinction between leading and managing people, and other leadership strategies and techniques. https://www.imadlodhi.com/subscribe.

Leadership is a crucial skill for anyone looking to succeed in their career or personal life. Whether you're a manager leading a team at work, a coach leading a sports team, or a parent leading your family, the ability to inspire and guide others is essential. However, many people often confuse the concepts of leading and managing, and use the terms interchangeably. While there are certainly some similarities between the two, there are also key differences that are important to understand in order to become an effective leader.

First, let's define the two concepts. Leading refers to the ability to inspire and motivate others to achieve a common goal or vision. It involves setting a direction, creating a sense of purpose, and inspiring others to follow you. On the other hand, managing refers to the ability to coordinate and oversee the work of others, ensuring that tasks are completed efficiently and effectively. It involves organizing resources, setting goals and objectives, and ensuring that everyone is on track to meet those goals.

While both leading and managing are important skills to have, they serve different purposes. Leading is more about inspiring and guiding others, while managing is more about coordinating and overseeing the work of others. In other words, leading is about setting the direction, while managing is about ensuring that everyone is moving in that direction.

So, how can you distinguish between the two and become an effective leader? Here are a few key differences to keep in mind:

  1. Leading involves inspiring and motivating others to achieve a common goal or vision, while managing involves coordinating and overseeing the work of others to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.
  2. Leading involves setting a direction and creating a sense of purpose, while managing involves setting goals and objectives, and ensuring that everyone is on track to meet those goals.
  3. Leading involves building relationships and creating a positive work culture, while managing involves enforcing rules and procedures to ensure that work is completed efficiently and effectively.
  4. Leading involves being a role model and setting an example for others to follow, while managing involves providing support and guidance to help others achieve their goals.
  5. Leading involves being proactive and taking the initiative to drive change and innovation, while managing involves being reactive and ensuring that work is completed according to established processes and procedures.

Understanding the detailed distinction between leading and managing people is essential for anyone looking to become an effective leader. By understanding the key differences between the two, you can identify your strengths and weaknesses as a leader, and make necessary adjustments to become more effective in your role.

Let's summarize what Managers do:

First Line Managers (FLM) are the backbone of any organization. They are the key to an organization’s success. They directly manage and have great influence over employees who perform day-to-day operational work, so their ability as a manager relies heavily on how well they can effectively engage with these workers. So it's important that they're chosen wisely!

First-line managers must show themselves as being robustly able to implement management systems that focus not only on short-term issues but also on long-term goals. This will allow your team room for improvement by stabilizing operations within any given environment while continuously driving improvements through employee development programs--which are proven methods of improving performance levels.

  • FLM1 – Roles & Responsibilities Management
  • FLM2 – Processes & Procedures Management
  • FLM3 – Meetings Management
  • FLM4 – Technology & Tools Management
  • FLM5 – Reporting & Measurements Management
  • FLM6 – Analytics & Optimization Management
  • FLM7 – Continual Service Improvement Management
  • People Management Systems (Employee Engagement, Employee Enablement, Employee Empowerment)

Let's summarize what Senior Managers do:

Establishing effective Upline Management (UM) and Governance (GOV) systems is critical to the success of any business, especially for those with a complex or matrix organizational structure. The senior management team must develop and implement a clear set of rules and protocols that will ensure decisions are made efficiently and effectively across all levels of the organization.

Maintaining a proper perspective on what's important is crucial when it comes down to deciding how best to handle certain situations or issues that may arise within your company over short periods rather than long-term plans because sometimes quick decisions must be made without much information available at all hand.

At a high-level, Senior Managers are responsible for implementing the necessary disciplines and systems to drive effective management and governance of their respective areas. Let's take a look at some of the disciplines and systems:

Implement Disciplines: Organization & Management | Processes & Procedures | Technology & Tools | Mindsets & Behaviours

Implement Systems: Operational Management | First Line Management | Upline Management | People Management

  • UM1 - Financial (Billing, Rev,Cost, GP) Management
  • UM2 - Service Level Management
  • UM3 - Customer Relationship /Client Journey Mgmt.
  • UM4 - Business Controls Management
  • UM5 - Cross-Department Management
  • UM6 - Vendor Management
  • UM7 - Crisis Management
  • UM8 - Delivery Excellence /Analytics Management
  • UM9 - Global Delivery Management
  • UM10 - New Business / Growth / RFS Management
  • UM11 - Risk Management
  • UM12 - Contract Management
  • UM13 - Account Governance /Strategy
  • UM14 - Issues/Escalations Management
  • UM15 - Transition & Transformation Mgmt.
  • UM16 - Key Initiatives Management
  • GOV1 - Steering Committee
  • GOV2 - Joint Innovation Councils
  • GOV3 - Governance Meetings
  • GOV4 - Monthly Operational Meetings

Let's summarize what People Managers do:

Many businesses are attempting to undertake organizational transformation that has been inadequately thought out and implemented in previous attempts. While struggling with new systems for which there may not yet be sufficient training available within their departments, employees may feel unheard, disengaged, and less empowered – ultimately leading to low productivity levels among staff members who have been tasked by management with carrying out these responsibilities!

A system is needed that strives to better understand how and why employees think and feel a certain way and how those thoughts and feelings translate into actions or actions. No Matter how innovative the technology is or how many processes have been written, the Organization will always struggle with implementing change unless the employee's behaviour is understood and addressed. And the risk will always be Inherent in day-to-day operations.

  • EE1 - Employee Development
  • EE2 - Communications
  • EE3 - Employee/Manager Feedback Programs
  • EE4 - Monthly Accomplishments
  • EE5 - Employee Council
  • EE6 - Employee Social Events
  • EE7 - Awards & Recognition Program
  • EE8 - Round Table Discussions with Sr. Leaders
  • EE9 - Skip Level Interviews with Sr. Leaders
  • EE10 - Structured 1-on-1 Meetings
  • EE11 - Structure Team Meetings
  • EE12 - Pre-Shift Process / Daily WHY
  • EE13 - Weekly Scorecard / Monthly Operational Reports
  • EE14 - Inter-Department Management
  • EE15 - Employee Lunch & Learns
  • EE16 - Employee Roles & Responsibilities
  • EE 17 - Employee Performance Reviews Management

Let's summarize what IT Operations Managers do:

Operational Management is one of the four most important management systems, which also include First-Line Management, Upline Management, and People Management.

It is a crucial component of every organization and plays an essential role in its success.

The organization's capacity to guarantee product uptime and availability is impacted by operational management. It guarantees that internal clients can conduct their job productively and that the product and services are accessible for purchase by external clients.

Although the fundamental function of Operations Management is to keep the lights on, a crucial aspect of Operations Management is to promote Continual Improvement. It accomplishes this by discovering new methods to reduce expenses and offering a platform for sales teams to enhance revenue.

  • CORE-A1 - Major Incident Management
  • CORE-A2 - Problem Management
  • CORE-A3- Availability Management
  • CORE-B1 - Service Desk Management
  • CORE-B2 - Service / Catalog Request Management
  • CORE-B3 - Incident Management
  • CORE-B4- Change Management
  • CORE-B5 - Release/Deployment Management
  • CORE-B6 - Request for Service (RFS)Management
  • CORE-C1 - Configuration Management
  • CORE-C2 - Asset Management
  • CORE-C3 - Performance & Capacity Management
  • CORE-C4 - Event / Monitoring & Alerting Management
  • CORE-C5 - Firmware, Patch, & Currency Management
  • CORE-C6 - Backup & Recovery / Disaster Recovery Management


  • OM1 - Growth (Workloads/Transition) Management
  • OM2 - Financial (Cost) Management
  • OM3 - Skills/Training Management
  • OM4- Resource (Staffing) Management
  • OM5 - Quality Management
  • OM6 - Knowledge Management
  • OM7 - Technology & Tools* Management
  • OM8 - Risk Management
  • OM9 - Human Resource Management
  • OM10 - Communications Management
  • OM11 - Service Level Management
  • OM12 - Service Performance Management – Reporting & Measurements
  • OM13 - Service Performance Management – Analytics & Optimization
  • OM14 - Continual Service Improvement
  • OM15 - Facilities Management
  • OM16 - Issues/Escalations Management
  • OM17 - Business Controls/Compliance/Security
  • OM18 - Queue Management
  • OM19 - Cross Department Management
  • OM20 - Vendor/Supplier Management
  • OM21 - Staff Utilization
  • OM22 - Self-Service Management
  • OM23 - Automation/Self-Heal Management

Now let's summarize what Leaders do:

The term "leadership" gets thrown around quite a bit. However, what does it mean when someone says you are a good leader, or what does it mean when someone says you have good leadership qualities?

A leader is not just someone who holds a position of authority, but someone who possesses the ability to inspire and guide others towards a shared vision and goal. A true leader is one who empowers and equips their team to reach their full potential, while fostering a culture of trust, respect, and accountability. They lead by example, and their actions speak louder than their words. They are not afraid to take calculated risks, and they are able to navigate the complexities of change and uncertainty. A good leader is a visionary, a mentor, and a catalyst for positive change.

Let's start with the four key Leadership Principles:

  • LP1 - Inspire & Motivate People
  • LP2 - Help People Achieve Their Goals & Objectives
  • LP3 - Help People Overcome Their Challenges
  • LP4 - Steer People Through Change

Let’s break these four Leadership Principles down further and try to understand them better.

What does "Inspire and motivate people" mean?

  • People are finding it increasingly harder to become and stay motivated or inspired to do great things in today’s harsh and unstable climate. We typically say that someone who can help rekindle the light in people is a strong leader.

What does "Help people achieve their goals and objectives" mean?

  • To stay motivated, people need to have a set of goals and objectives. Moreover, they need to have a set of actions to help achieve them. Someone who can help people identify their goals and objectives and build a plan to achieve them is someone we refer to as a strong leader.

What does "Help people overcome their challenges" mean?

  • The challenges people face can affect their motivations, their ability to achieve their goals and objectives, and the results. People are challenged with dealing with the complicated nature of business and a demanding and tumultuous environment. A strong leader is someone who can assist others in identifying and overcoming their challenges.

What does "Steer people through difficult change" mean?

  • Change is all around us. You can accept the changing environment by adapting to navigate it successfully, or you may find yourself being left behind by the change or struggling to keep up with it. When this happens, people risk becoming disgruntled and detached. A strong leader is someone who can Guide others through challenging times.

Now that we have a good understanding of the four Leadership Principles, we need to delve deeper to understanding the Leadership Characteristics that are needed to execute the principles:

  • LC1 - Customer Obsessed
  • LC2 - Employee Obsessed
  • LC3 - People Developer
  • LC4 - Collaborative
  • LC5 - Inclusive
  • LC6 - Empathetic
  • LC7 - Self-Aware
  • LC8 - Passionate
  • LC9 - Ethical
  • LC10 - Active-Listener
  • LC11 - Strong Communicator
  • LC12 - Resilient
  • LC13 - Strategic
  • LC14 - Innovative
  • LC15 - Continuously Learning
  • LC16 - Trustworthy
  • LC17 - Transparent
  • LC18 - Results-Oriented
  • LC19 - Strong Business Acumen
  • LC20 - Technically Astute
  • LC21 - Domain Experience
  • LC22 - Adaptable
  • LC23 - Accessible
  • LC24 - Visionary
  • LC25 - Decisive

So, if you're looking to improve your leadership skills and become a more effective leader, it's important to understand the detailed distinction between leading and managing people. Subscribe to my blog to learn more about this topic and other leadership strategies and techniques.

Subscribe to my blog to learn more about the detailed distinction between leading and managing people, and other leadership strategies and techniques. https://www.imadlodhi.com/subscribe.