You can be a manager without being a leader. Management is a position bestowed upon you, which sets out roles and responsibilities, in relation to yourself and your team. But you cannot be a truly successful and highly competent manager without learning and integrating key leadership qualities. And in today’s fast-changing and increasingly remote business world, managers need to be effective leaders.

As much as it’s your role to set the pace for the team, that can be harder to do for yourself. It is very easy to feel overwhelmed in leadership roles because of the demanding deadlines, the people problems that fill up your day, the second-guessing and criticism, the pressures to do more with less, and dealing with the crisis of the moment. Work can become a three-shift day the morning emails, taking care of problems at work all day, and then the night shift to catch up on reading and writing and responding to more emails.

Years ago, I (MG) was on a small plane flying from L.A. to Santa Barbara. As we approached the runway, a very bad thing happened. The landing gear didn’t work! After it failed on a second and third attempt, our pilot finally gave up. The pilot then announced that we were going to fly around in circles until the gas tank was empty to reduce the chance of an explosion when we landed.

Today’s business leaders must navigate ever-changing conditions—economic uncertainty, geopolitical instability, and a lingering pandemic. Meanwhile, the same leaders are working to optimize business efficiency. Much has been written about business efficiency and how much, fast, and well a company can produce a product or service vs. the time, effort, and resources.