Managers and Leaders

The biggest difference between managers and leaders is the way they motivate the people who work or follow them, and this sets the tone for most other aspects of what they do. Many people, by the way, are both. They have management jobs, but they realize that you cannot buy hearts, especially to follow them. Managers have a position of authority vested in them by the company, and their subordinates work for them and largely do as they are told.Management style is transactional, in that the manager tells the subordinate what to do, and the subordinate does this not because they are a blind robot, but because they have been promised a reward (at minimum their salary) for doing so, down a difficult path, and so act as leaders too.

Leaders do not have subordinates – at least not when they are leading. Many organizational leaders do have subordinates, but only because they are also managers. But when they want to lead, they have to give up formal authoritarian control, because to lead is to have followers, and following is always a voluntary activity.Managers have subordinates, whereas leaders have followers Managers’ goals arise from necessities rather than desires; they excel at diffusing conflicts between individuals or departments, placating all sides while ensuring that an organization’s day to day business gets done. Leaders, on the other hand, adopt personal, active attitudes towards goals. Leaders look for the potential opportunities and rewards that lie around the corner, inspiring subordinates and firing up the creative process with their own energy.Born leaders seem to have the desired skill set naturally in their thought process like a person that can play music by ear without ever having had one lesson.

These born leaders are come in various levels such as the informal leader in a group. Born leaders are often starting off as recognized by a group of which they are a member as the “alpha” and are bestowed leadership by the other members in the group. From this point, born leaders further develop into future leaders hopefully acquiring the knowledge to become effective. Made leaders often come to exist through experiences and often start as a manager but develop into leader.The path to leadership is not always first clear to these individuals but rather develops through circumstances and the desire to succeed. Certainly some individuals are born with more leadership traits than others. The charisma that enables a natural born leader to become a world leader, I believe is not something that can be learned.

Some of the skills that a manager might need are the following: communication, the ability to listen, commitment to the truth, empathy, persuasion, leadership, focus, the ability to devise work, and the ability to solve problems.If I were going to develop the skills of a manager I think I would really familiarize myself with the subordinate’s jobs below me. I wouldn’t make any radical changes right away, but rather submerse myself in the active way that things are run. I would keep what is good and make better what is bad. I would try to be open to suggestions, but not make changes just based on complaints. As a manager I would look at what makes other managers successful. I would try to implement characteristics of a leader.