Good managers increase productivity, great leaders peak performance.

Being a manager doesn’t mean you also become a leader. There are a lot of differences between these two notions and all of these lead to the most important: managers focus on productivity, while leaders aim at performance.

First of all, in order to make a difference between a manager and a leader, we have to analyze the deffinitions of management and leadership.

Leadership means "the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members." There are also other diverse definitions. Stogdill concluded that "there are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept”. While Peter Drucker sums up that: "The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers. To gain followers requires influence but doesn't exclude the lack of integrity in achieving this” (Yukl, 1989). Some theorists believe that leadership is no different from the social influence processes occurring among all members of a group and others believe that leadership is everything someone is doing in order to lead effective. The classic question if leaders are made or born is still concerning many researchers. Is it a charisma or something that can be taught? The answer to this question varies. Although it is unexceptionable that leading isn’t easy, leaders should have some essential attributes such as vision, integrity, trust, selflessness, commitment, creative ability, toughness, communication ability, risk taking and visibility (Capowski, 1994).

Management comprises directing and controlling a group of one or more people or entities for the purpose of coordinating and harmonizing that group towards accomplishing a goal. Some would define management as an art, while others would define it as a science. Whether management is an art or a science isn't what is most important. Management is a process that is used to accomplish organizational goals. that is, a process that is used to achieve what an organization wants to achieve.

Secondly, a leader loves the change. He knows that by following the rules, he will simply earn what it was earned before. He embraces change and know that even if things are working, there could be a better way forward. That is why he searches new ways, new methods, he supports innovation and encourages different visions, being aware that peak performance comes after a peak idea. On the opposite side, a manager is interested in maintaining and increasing productivity. Innovation is not important for him, unlike efficiency. He often doubles down on what made him successful, perfecting existing skills and adopting proven behaviors.