Shreya Bansal elucidates the concept of ‘leaders’ and ‘managers’ and the palpable discrepancies between the conduct of both these personalities in the corporate realm.
She emphasizes upon the significance of both, along with highlighting the necessity of incorporating an interplay of both these positions in the corporate sector for a lucrative functioning.
LEADER AND MANAGER – THE TWO PERSONALITIES
Peter Drucker once said, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” Leadership and management have been used synonymously for ages, but these two terms are vastly different from each other. They may be used in complementary connotations but are fundamentally two different terms. Management refers to culmination of planning, organizing, staffing, and controlling for achieving organizational objectives but leadership on the other hand refers to guiding people towards a common vision.
Traditionally we can say that managers have a transactional style of working as they get paid to get things done and exercise a position of authority over their subordinates while leaders have a transformational style that inspires people to willingly take initiative towards the goals. A leader has a proactive approach, seeks the truth and is not afraid to take risks. Risk taking is often minimized by the managers as they plan to achieve already set objectives. Also, the managers are an appointed authority figure but leaders possess personal traits that influence people. A power of the leader comes from his/ her followers.
A manager has the perennial responsibility to cope with complexity in the organization. Resource allocation, resource management and control remain the basic functions of management. On the other hand, leadership develops a vision that helps an organization to cope with change. In the highly dynamic environment of today, it has become essential that organizations learn to effectively deal with change and not let the winds of volatility shake them to their core. Leaders are the harbingers of change whereas managers focus on creating stability by getting results. The main attributes of a leader are honesty and integrity, ability to challenge, have a strong vision and be a good communicator who understands the values of people working for him. A manager can be characterized by the ability to execute the work, keeping people focused and manage processes.
The differences in the two terms can be highlighted by understanding them one without the other. Leadership without management sets a direction or vision that others follow, without considering how the new direction is going to be achieved. Other people then have to work hard in the trail that is left behind, picking up the pieces and making it work. There can be leaders who don’t manage in the workplace. For example, an entrepreneur might grow a business by innovating, generating new ideas, having a strong vision of the future, developing relationships and creating contacts. However, he may not manage people well enough and has a deputy – e.g. a factory manager – to ensure the right staff is recruited, products or services are produced, and objectives are achieved effectively and efficiently. Using an even simpler example to explain the fundamental difference between a leader and a manager, consider a sports referee who manages both the teams but provides no direction or leadership to none of them. The referee is a manager but not a leader.
A manager focuses on achieving already set plans. On the other hand a leader shapes a vision that is inspires and motivates his followers into achieving it. It is rightly said that managers have subordinates but leaders have followers. A manager uses controlling and problem solving techniques to keep a check on his/her subordinates and maintain their performance. But leaders use motivation, inspiration and rewards to align the followers towards achieving the common objective.
Organizations cannot just simply focus on management as they run the risk of being over-managed and under-led. Leadership is necessary to provide a burst of energy to the mundane tasks and bring about a sense of accomplishment in the workers as they willingly direct themselves towards the direction that is shown to them by their leader. But the importance of management cannot be ignored too. To avoid disarray, management becomes a necessary activity to ensure that the organization is on the right track. Self motivated groups may not require leaders but managers to manage them effectively. Thus the importance of both leaders and managers cannot be undermined. An effective leadership will bring about a transformational vision that resonates throughout the organization. The manager would then seek to strive for order and consistency and work towards profitability.
Some individuals have the necessary personal traits and charisma for being influential leaders and others may be good managers but may not transpire into effective leaders. Smart companies recognize the need of both and try to create a balance between the both. Creating a strong leadership base can do wonders for an organization. Giving the managerial workforce opportunities to showcase their leadership abilities will lead to leadership development amongst the young professionals that will be beneficial for the organization in the long run.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, I would just like to say that, without efficient management, the vision and the direction set by a leader risks being unsustainable. Similarly, management exercised without effective leadership will not address the core issues; ignore the strategic long term vision and will not be able to optimize the performance of individuals and the organization as a whole. In the over competitive corporate climate of today, every organization needs both leadership and management to achieve success and strive for excellence due to their co-dependency.
Creating and managing a strong leadership culture will go a long way for the organization by creating people who inspire people towards a lasting vision.
REFERENCES
a) Link – http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/articles/manager_leader.htm
b) Link – http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/leadership/management/styles/
c) Link – https://hbr.org/2001/12/what-leaders-really-do
