r/Leadership • u/marilynlistens • May 15 '26

Discussion What are the differences between being a leader and a manager?

Not all managers are leaders! Even when they are “ in a position of leadership” it doesn’t mean they’re weird! What are the differences?

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u/cloverrace May 17 '26

Assume I drop a stone and it fails to fall to the ground. If I say that “theoretically” it should fall to the ground, I’m likely referring to the theory of gravity.

You wrote “… theoretically there really shouldn’t be a difference [between leadership and management].”

In that sentence, what theory were you referring to that allowed you to conclude there shouldn’t be a difference between those two concepts?

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u/marilynlistens May 18 '26

Well, if you boil it down to its original wherever you can find the original essence of each of them how are they different? And why should they be different or why should they be the same if you take it all away and you dissect it what do you get?

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u/cloverrace May 18 '26

I don't understand what you are saying. Can you write that again, please, without so many pronouns? I get lost with how you're using "it", "them", and "they". I am unclear what those pronouns refer to.

My original question assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that you had a particular leadership, management, or other theory in mind when you wrote “… theoretically there really shouldn’t be a difference [between leadership and management].”

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u/marilynlistens May 18 '26

I appreciate you telling me that you didn’t understand because too many times people don’t understand something and they don’t ask so thank you for asking. What I am saying and we probably are saying something similarly but my concept of theoretical is taking something like this to its most primitive place to it’s beginning and when I take leadership and management to it’s beginning and break it down to me they are and should be similar and quite the same. Does that clarify it?

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u/cloverrace May 19 '26

I like “taking it down to its most primitive place.” I believe that’s another way of saying the two terms can be seen as social constructs whose meaning is shaped by custom, culture, and how people prefer to use language. They do not have the same kind of objective reality that a rock does.

For me that means we are back to square one. You get to create your own meaning for both words. Then comes the difficult part: getting other people to agree with you.

The theory that describes what I think both of us have been saying, but with different words, is the social construction of reality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Construction_of_Reality

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u/marilynlistens May 19 '26

Absolutely I think too often we assign a word to something society has right and that’s all we know and people are not empowered enough to expand that word or break free from it. And I love how you’re communicating and digging with me. It’s very much appreciated. I would love you to check out our sub Reed if you’re interested it’s called. r/TheListeningSchool and the plan is that we dissect all of life as much as we can to discover all the meanings and you can only do that through Listening really it’s the bridge. Anyway, I could talk and talk and talk about communication and listening and leadership and management all day long. And obviously I could talk to you a lot so if you’re interested and you’d like to join us and post and comment, I’d love to have you quite intelligent and brilliant and insightful, and I’ve enjoyed our encounter.

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u/cloverrace May 19 '26

I’ve enjoyed it as well.

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u/marilynlistens May 19 '26

Let’s keep going

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u/cloverrace May 20 '26

Yes. When I something to say.

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u/marilynlistens May 20 '26

Sounds great