Managers vs Leaders

67

Managers

and leaders:

Are they

different?

Abraham Zaleznik

Most societies, and that

includes business organizations, are caught hetwcen two conflicting

needs: one, for managers

to maintain the balance

of operations, and one

for leaders to create new

approaches and imagine

new areas to explore. One

might well ask why there

is a conflict. Cannot

both managers and leaders

exist in the same society^

or even better, cannot

one person be botb a

manager and a leader? The

;iuthor of this article

does not say that is impossible hut suggests

that because leaders and

managers are basically different types of people, the

conditions favorable to the

growth of one may he

inimical to the other.

Exploring the world views

of managers and leaders,

tbe author illustrates,

using Alfred P. Sloan and

Edwin Land among others

as examples, that managers

and leaders have different

attitudes toward tbeir

goals, careers, relations

with others, and them-

selves. And tracing their

different lines of development, the author shows

how leaders are of a psychologically different

type tban managers; their

development depends on

tbeir forming a oneto-one relationship with

a mentor.

Abraham Zaleznik is the

Cabners-Rabb Professor of

Social Psychology of

Management at the Harvard Business School.

He is also a psychoanalyst

and an active member,

American Psycboanalytie

Association. This is

Dr. Zaleznik's fifth

article for HBR, tbe last

one being "Power and

Politics in Organizational

Life," wbich appeared in

tbe May-June 1970 issue.

The present article is

based on a working paper

prepared for Time Inc.'s

conference on leadersbip,

held in Washington in

September, 1976.

Illustration by

Hans-Georg Rauch

A bureaucratic society which

breeds managers may stifle young

leaders who need mentors and

emotional interchange to develop

What is the ideal way to develop leadership? Every

society provides its own answer to this question,...