At some point, we started drawing an unhelpful line:
- Leaders are visionary, inspiring, and bold.
- Managers are rigid, uninspiring, and stuck in the weeds.
It’s become a cultural trope — leadership is the TED Talk; management is the compliance training. But this false divide is hurting teams and holding back great work.
Leadership Without Management Leaves Teams Lost
Take the compassionate, charismatic founder with a clear vision and a magnetic presence. Everyone wants to follow them. And yet, behind the scenes, the business is struggling. People are burning out. Projects stall. No one knows what success looks like.
Or the technical expert who’s at the top of their field — who proudly says, “I’m not a manager,” as if that’s a badge of honor. They mean well, but their team flounders under unclear priorities, inconsistent feedback, and a lack of support.
These aren’t bad people. They’re just leaders without the management scaffolding to make their leadership work.
The Real Cost of Skipping Management
When management is seen as a lesser calling — or worse, as unnecessary — teams suffer in quiet ways:
- Goals drift and rework piles up.
- Talented people get overlooked or underutilized.
- Emotional labor goes unnoticed until it leads to burnout.
- People work harder… on the wrong things.
And over time, the culture shifts. What was once exciting starts to feel chaotic. Morale dips. Attrition rises.
Management Is What Makes Leadership Sustainable
At Libra, we believe the best leaders manage — and the best managers lead.
They don’t see performance reviews as a formality. They use them to develop and challenge their teams.
They don’t delegate and disappear. They coach, calibrate, and connect.
They don’t just set direction. They build the systems that help people stay on course.
In other words: management isn’t the opposite of leadership — it’s what gives leadership staying power.
Let’s Make Great Management Visible Again
We built Libra to spotlight the work that often gets missed — the collaboration, coaching, and influence that traditional HR data rarely captures. Because we believe that good management isn’t just nice to have. It’s the engine behind great teams and lasting results.
Let’s stop treating ‘manager’ like a dirty word.
And start celebrating the ones who do the work that keeps the lights on — and the people inspired.
Ready to take your organisation’s performance management to the next level? Read this post to learn more about why it should be the core of your talent strategy.