Management and Leadership
Leadership is the process by which a person influences others to accomplish a
goal, and directs an organization in a manner that makes it more unified and logical. A
noted by Maxwell (1991), “True leadership cannot be awarded, appointed, or assigned. It
comes only from influence, and that can’t be mandated. It must be earned” (p.14).
Leadership can also be described as a dynamic, relational process involving interactions
among leaders, members, and outside influences. Management is the process of
formulating a strategic vision, setting goals, crafting a strategy and then implementing
and executing that strategy. Drucker (1977) states “…management is a function, a
discipline, a task to be done; and managers are the professionals who practice this
discipline, carry out the functions, and discharge these tasks” (p.11). It focuses on the
entire organization from a short and long-term perspective. Leadership without
management sets a vision that others follow, without considering how the new vision is
going to be achieved. Management without leadership controls resources to maintain the
status quo or ensure things happen according to pre-established plans. Leadership
combined with management sets a new direction and manages the resources to achieve it.
Leadership within the United States Postal Service starts with the Postmaster
General and is passed through the channels down to the local postmasters and plant
managers. The Postmaster General’s vision is for the entire postal service, whereas the
plant manager’s vision is for his postal facility to achieve their expectations in the overall
postal service’s objective. For example, a First Class post...
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... air”. The leadership behavior, achievement-oriented, is best
suited for the personality as a whole, of the employees. We thrive on Employee of the
Month rewards, and Postal Incentive bucks, used to purchase postal items in our in-house
postal store. Being that we get thirty minutes for lunch, we often get an additional fifteen
minutes if we process a certain amount or keep the recycle rate under 2%.
References
Maxwell, J. (1991). The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People
Will Follow You. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
Drucker, P. (1977). People and Performance: The Best of Peter Drucker. New York, NY:
Harper & Row.
Heifetz, R. (1994). Leadership Without Easy Answers. Cambridge, MA:The Belknap Press of Harvard University.
Sloma, R. (1980). How To Measure Managerial Performance. New York, NY:
Macmillan Publishing Co.
Much has been written about the difference between management and leadership. In the past, competent management staffs ran effective companies. In light of our ever-changing world, however, most companies have come to realize that it is much more important to lead than to manage. In today's world the old ways of management no longer work. One reason is that the degree of environmental and competitive change we are experiencing is extreme. Although exciting, the world is also very unstable and confused. In an article entitled What’s the Difference between Your Hospital and the Other? Gary Campbell states that the difference between a manager and a leader is that the manager “finds himself quite willing to take risk, but seemingly afraid to take the risk of being different.” That being true, a manager will always be reactive instead of proactive. A true leader will be proactive. He will embrace change and will look for ways to differentiate himself and his company from the competition.
Leadership is defined as ‘the process in which an individual influences the group of individuals to attain a common goal’. The goal is achieved by cooperation, communication and cohesive behaviour. A leader is someone who stands for his cause and takes responsibility, but can also motivate others to do the same. There is a clear difference between being a boss and a leader. A leader can motivate others and inspires them to aim high and achieve anything they set their minds to. However a boss plays more of a supervising role. Power should naturally come to a leader but that power should be treated with respect and never be abused. A good leader should;
Kruse (2013) posits that leadership and management are not synonymous. Thus he defines leadership as, a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others towards the achievement of a goal. He contends that leadership stems from social influence and not authority or power; it requires the involvement of others and must include a goal. Therefore, key elements of good leadership include ability to delegate, determine what is doable, and being able to lead by example. These elements provide the framework for purpose, direction and motivation.
“Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.” -Unknown
Denise Rousseau took a descriptive approach in explaining psychological contract while David Guest was more analytical about the term “psychological contract”. David gave a more detailed and in depth analysis of psychological contract. Also he was able to expand in more details Rousseau’s analysis of psychological contract.
As John M. Bryson explains, we engage in strategic planning “… in the United States and elsewhere … to help public and nonprofit organizations create public value” (kindle file). Bryson furthermore explains, “ creating public value means producing enterprises, policies, programs, projects, services, or physical, technological, social, political, and cultural infrastructure that advance the public interest and the common good at a reasonable cost” (kindle file).
Socrates said “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” (Socrates). If by starting out with Socrates words in mind then people go can in with a clean slate and open mind to the project ahead of them. It will also help leaders and team members alike to ask themselves how asking questions impacts the success of a project. However, asking questions alone isn’t enough; depending upon the project and your role certain questions need to be asked. Also, once the questions start flowing how leaders or a team member know that all the right questions have asked, in a sense crossing your “t” and dotting your “i”.
In a firm, management and leadership are important and needed. Leadership and management are similar. Actually, leadership and management are totally different. The leadership would influence the firm. The leader would have difference leadership styles to lead the subordinate.
We live in an era of communication challenges. It is an age of increasingly scarce management and education to the markets of tomorrow. To solve this problem, to improve and restore the competitive edge of business, I recommend teaching leadership as well as organization. We need to move beyond the simplistic and boring, everyday organizational skills commonly taught in core courses in business schools. Important as these skills are, we need to redirect our foci towards the essential ingredient required to put these skills to work – leadership. As Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus have expressed it, “The problem with many organizations…is that they tend to be over managed and under led. There is a profound difference between management and leadership, and both are important.” “To manage” means “to bring about, to accomplish, to have charge or responsibility for, to conduct.” “Leading” is “influencing, guiding in direction, course, action, opinion.” Other characteristics include: motivating and inspiring individuals, providing direction and vision, earning the respect of others, turning talent and efforts into results, and being an excellent communicator and listener.
Writings by Sun Tzu on military leadership, Plato’s and Aristotle’s (Plato’s intellectual competitor and student) work questioning ‘who should rule us’, philosophy by Castiglione and others work jointly summarise classical leadership. In order to capture what can be said of today’s leadership with regard to classical writings on leadership one must question whether leadership is a changing phenomena over time or rather, whether there is a single "best" leadership style that suits all leaders in all situations over time. There are more studies on leadership today than previously and leadership is being researched by a wider range of people than before. Today’s writings offer a different analysis of leadership from classical writings because some classical writings were written by leaders themselves and therefore, often bias. There is a relationship in some behavioural patterns between classical and contemporary leaders in terms of military leadership, the use of rhetoric in learning leadership skills and lastly, of leaders extending their framework of control causing conflicts occurring that, with the help of others, could otherwise have been avoided.
You assign a new employee a task as you run off to a meeting, do your work or to take that precious lunch break. When you get back, you learn that this person has not completed what you have asked of him/her, not because they did not want to, but because they did not know how and did not ask for help. Because of this, time is wasted and now you have to actually do some work yourself. What would be a good way to minimize the likelihood of things like this happening in the future?
1. A. Is there a difference between effective leadership and effective management? Yes, I believe that managers are analytical, structured, controlled, deliberate, and orderly. Leaders are experimental, willing to take chances, visionaries, flexible, unfettered, and creative. These are the differences between management and leaders.
Leaders manage and managers lead but they are not one and the same (Bass 1990). In years past the concepts of leadership and management have often been meshed into one. Is the manager of a business able to lead? Is the leader able to manage his followers? Management is defined by certain functions which can possibly lead to leadership and leadership is characterised by certain activities which could play a role in management. However, a number of managers do not lead and some leaders do not manage (Zaleznik, 1977). Different styles of leadership exist, the basic being democratic, autocratic and laissez faire and several theorists. Both political and business leaders have their views on what leadership should be and the characteristics an effective leader should posses. Management on the other hand, also has several definitions but the views on management and who an effective manager is are often synonymous. This essay sets out to critically asses Dwight D. Eisenhower's definition of leadership in relation to business organisations and also how leadership differs from management while comparing it to other views on leadership. Grove (1986) stated that it is necessary for effective managers to have the same clarity of purpose and motivation attributed by effective leaders.
Presently many of us have learned that managers are primarily administrators who have learned to write business plans, utilize their resources and keep track of progress. We must learn that we are not limited by job title, and that means we can utilize our management skills in any position that we are in. We must also know that we can use our leadership skills in the same situations. On the other hand we have also learned that leaders are people who have an impact on those that surround them. The main difference that separates these two roles is that management is a function that must be utilized in any type of business, and leadership is the relationship that the leader has with his followers, which in turn can motivate and energize the organization.
Although leadership and management have some similarities they are not the same, in fact, there are several differences between leadership and management. Management does not include leadership even though they are both used throughout an organization and could be used together and is often referred to as one. Leadership and management involve some interaction and communications in any organization. However, the methods that are used are not linked, but they may share a similar function.