According to the Oxford Dictionary:
Management is “the process of dealing with or controlling things or people.”
Leadership is “the action of leading a group of people or an organization, or the ability to do this.”
According to real life (and this is a true story…)
Management is telling a coffee shop employee with a broken arm not to try a new way but rather to find someone else who can follow the rules. Management is telling him to do only what he can handle doing, according to the rules.
Leadership is allowing that employee to try a new method, one he believes he can do with his broken arm, and when it works out even better, changing the way you make a product based on the accidental innovation.
Management is telling that employee’s supervisor that she was wrong to allow that employee to experiment, to break the rules, order her to go back to the original process and write her up for insubordination.
Leadership is trying out this new method across all storefronts to see if everyone can benefit from this innovation and congratulating both the employee with the broken arm and her supervisor.
Management is living by the rulebook. Leadership is trusting your people to improve the rulebook.