Leadership is romanticized, management is not - why?

[Anonymous]

I’m a pretty new manager with an MBA. Even in school, everything “leadership” was lionized while “management” is considered staid and almost beside the point. I see the same narrative in the workplace. Evidently we need both, but people seem to want the glory and recognition of being a “leader” while skirching the duties of “manager.”

[Anonymous]

Leadership has cache because you are the one making decisions, “in the room where it happens”, determining strategic direction, and externally facing. Management is largely just implementing the vision that leaders set - and thought about that way, not that different from other individual contributor roles, except that their work involves people.

That’s the cynical view anyway. My personal experience is that moving up the management ladder has come with increasing opportunities to lead. And people who are good managers often (but not always) make good leaders since both require good people skills.

Having been in the position where I’ve been in a true leadership (executive) position and managing a large team, the day to day was pretty different. A great manager is a real asset, as is a great IC, but it’s not the same. I’m probably a better leader than I was a manager. I sit at the top of a large team, but my direct reports need little management, and they (and more so people a level below them) do the real managing.

[Anonymous]

If you are a good leader and hire the right people, there is very little "management" that is needed. Sure, you are a manager and you need to ensure your staff delivers on time but that is more about leading them not managing them.