Management is about maintaining the status quo, being effective and reducing risk. It creates stability, makes things predictable and makes things safe. This might involve setting targets, creating rotas, holding people to account and managing performance. 

Leadership is about change, doing things differently and taking risks by stepping into the unknown. It involves reflecting on what has happened, learning from experience and trimming the sails to stay on course. Leadership involves looking into the future and creating a vision. It involves setting goals and developing and motivating people to reach them.

We can think of all the activities we do as belonging to one of three categories; doing, leading or managing.

Doing is about the day job. In a community pharmacy this could be dispensing, checking prescriptions, providing services or counselling patients. If you don’t do these things you will get your butt kicked by someone, probably your patients.

Managing is organising what you and your team do. This might be organising rotas, holiday planning, stock management, organising payroll, completing paperwork and submitting figures. If you don’t do the management tasks, people will also kick your butt. This could be your team if you haven’t organised rotas or the payroll and people don’t get paid. If you work for a company, this might also be your managers if you don’t provide information about performance. It you own your business, it could be HMRC or your bank manager who will be upset.

Leadership is preparing for the future. This could be about long-term planning, looking at business performance, undertaking appraisals with your team, organising a team meeting to share your vision and align your team to it, or networking with people with whom you can find some mutual benefit.

No one will chastise you for not doing any leadership. Leading generally doesn’t have immediate consequences whether you do it or you don’t. Leadership is an active choice and can easily be squeezed out by managing and doing. If you don’t undertake any leadership activity you will not feel anything today, but your business will become out of date and won’t keep pace with a changing NHS or society.

Planning what you will achieve today or tomorrow is management. It focuses on the here and now, the most pressing needs which might not be the most productive or valuable actions. It is still important but needs to be placed within wider leadership context.

Planning as a leadership activity involves thinking about what you want to achieve in the next week, or month, six months or year. It focuses on what you want to achieve rather than what you are going to do.