# Leadership vs. management — the real distinction

- **Episode:** [158](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/158.md) (2024-12-31)
- **Type:** other
- **Tags:** leadership, management, distinction
- **Time:** 7:43–8:56 (start 463s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/158?t=463](https://truthliesandwork.com/158?t=463)

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[7:43] Al Elliott: I think it's a bit of a— it's probably an unfair and a bit of an artificial Distinction. But I suppose what I mean is you can technically manage resources. Even saying that makes me feel a bit icky in the mouth. I'm sorry. But you know what I mean? You can be one of those people who has a transactional relationship with work and sees people as points in a Gantt chart, and you can effectively project manage. But that to me is a form of pure management. And it's not that it's unimportant, but absent leadership, it's so sterile
[8:17] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[8:18] Al Elliott: And threatens to make people feel like widgets of productivity, which is never a successful long-term strategy. So I suppose that's the difference, right? We leaders need management skills. I'm not the CEO of my organization, in part because my boss, who's the CEO, is a better manager than I am. But I have a strong leadership role to play in my organization. And so we augment each other in that way. He also has leadership credentials too. But I do recognize that sometimes you can be technically able to manage individuals within a project and still not be seen in any way as a leader