Managing vs. Leading: Why the Difference Matters More Than You Think

At Marcus Lumber in Northwest Iowa, the real advantage comes from knowing when to focus on systems—and when to focus on people. 

The words “management” and “leadership” are often used interchangeably, but as I’ve learned over my career, there are some important distinctions between them. Managers handle the “how,” while leaders tend to obsess over the “why.” 

Most of us have a job description for the manager’s role in our business. However, leadership is a broader concept. John C. Maxwell, the team-building expert, author and speaker, defines leadership simply as influence. You also commonly hear this advice: “Manage things, lead people.” There’s an entire industry built around leadership, so it often steals the spotlight from management tasks. 

But both managing and leading are necessary if we want our businesses to be healthy and successful. If you’re only managing, you’re likely missing your team’s full potential, and if you’re only leading, your operation likely isn’t as efficient as it could be. Managing is about processes, timelines, compliance and efficiency. Leading is about people and purpose. They should work in tandem. Leadership without systems and management can create chaos. Leadership can’t focus on people without some structure in place. Likewise, management without leadership produces a poor work culture and likely higher turnover. 

Develop Strengths, Don’t Just Fill Roles 

As we try to grow our fourth-generation family business, we’ve started to recognize when we mix up the difference between managing and leading. In these moments, we’re manually (and tediously) solving problems one at a time, we’re delegating singular tasks and we’re trying to make people adhere to strict processes or policies. 

In contrast, we’ve found much more success when we spend time to develop problem solvers, collect the right data points and inspire people to see how what they do helps others. As a home center, we’re constantly reminding ourselves that we’re able to help customers work on projects for which they may have been saving money for years and might do only once in their lives. We can’t do that to the highest degree without both managing our operations and leading our people well. It’s important we make the distinction. 

We’re also trying to recognize the individual strengths within each person on our team. Everybody is good at something; become a talent expert. We can’t forget that leadership is about people—they’re the greatest asset to our business and therefore our greatest investment. “What are you doing to invest in your people?” is the question that has pushed our 105-year-old business into some of the more nontraditional leadership activities like our annual book club, our internally designed margin boot camp and the school-like industry field trips we take. 

Meaningful Work Builds Stronger Teams 

At Marcus Lumber we focus on our core values to lead our business and help manage our decision making. Through companywide “core-value quick-hit” notes we highlight moments when a team member has lived out our core values. 

Certainly not all leadership comes from you or the owners. We’re trying to inspire action by highlighting real-world behaviors. A leader’s job is to motivate, even in nuts, bolts and building materials. We’re literally helping build the communities around us. People thrive when they’re given meaningful work like this to do. In my experience, when a leader is able to dig deeper and get out of “I have to” and into “I want to” motivation, the organization becomes a kind of high-performance machine. 

Real Leadership Isn’t About Winners and Losers 

Management solves problems. Leadership develops problem solvers. A leader should do anything, but not everything. I’ve experienced the most success and fulfillment when I try to empower others. Yet that’s not traditionally what we’re taught about leadership. Think back to a couple of leadership games we played as kids: King of the Hill and Follow the Leader. The problem with those games is that to win you have to make everyone else lose. With such lessons taught at a young age, it’s no wonder we often get confused about what it takes to lead our businesses well. I don’t believe leadership is always about doing what’s popular, and it can entail making difficult decisions. Leadership is also about building others up and serving those around you. 

Leadership is caring more about who a given person is becoming than what they’re doing. Management is making sure everything is still getting done. Management controls things like schedules; leadership focuses on coaching up and caring for people. I like to think the best leaders also manage, and the best managers lead. It’s a constant, ever-changing effort in a small business like ours—an ongoing integration between managing things and leading our team. 

Given the headline on this article, if you’re reading this, you’re likely good. The question is, are you good enough to get better at leading and managing alike? You likely have the right answers, but are you building systems and people who can find the answers without you behind the counter? Your greatest investments are relying on you.

Grant Leavitt is a fourth-generation owner-operator of Marcus Lumber who operates three home center stores in Northwest Iowa. Marcus Lumber was founded in 1920 and currently has 55 team members.