Using Examples Compare and Contrast the Characteristics
Using examples compare and contrast the characteristics of both managers and leaders. Introduction: Leadership and management are two bipolar systems of worker administration in current business environment as defined by Kumle and Kelly (2000, 8). It is a topic most debated upon due to the similar characteristic of the roles they play in an organization which often intertwine. Leaders and managers are however disparate in their nature of act. As applied in a team-based organizational structure, the argument is that managers and leaders differs in the perceived entailment of authority they posses as viewed by their employees.
However, they compliment one another and can be cultivated in order to be effectual. In this essay we will discuss how the traits of managers and leaders contrast one another by comparison. We will then analyze and evaluate how these differences can offset the other leading to the conclusion that both positions are highly congruent in order to achieve an effective situational leadership approach in an organization, eliminating the “false dichotomy” between the two (Adair 2005, 31).
It is vitally important for leaders to posses not only leadership quality but also substantiated managerial skills, and vice versa, especially in today’s cutthroat business environment. Leaders and managers are often confused due to the stark similarity of authoritative position they entails but are different in their defining factors. They are the same because of their essential role of being the person in the lead of the employees and being their source of command.
However they are different in the effect they play in an organization as well as the perspective they emanates to the employees as well as the world. Leadership is the aptitude to guide and direct the embodying team towards an end goal while management is the astute means of completing the targets (Kumle and Kelly 2000, 9). As the famous saying by Warren Bennis (1989), “managers do things right while leaders do the right thing”. It is essential to realize the difference because some managers might not possess certain leadership qualities, as it is that leaders might not necessarily be an ffective manager. Managers are more structural in nature through perseverance, consistency and knowledge while leaders on the adverse lean more towards an artistic and innovative mindset (Zaleznik 1992, 127). The difference lies in the nature of act. Managers often referred to the position of authority while leaders refer to an inspirational and far-sightedness innate trait of a person. The style of corporate management distinguishes leaders from managers. Being a leader refers to the possession of innate characteristics and trait models of visionaries.
They are the source of inspiration as they posses illuminating qualities and attributes which would be the driving force leading the company towards success. Personality traits such as charisma, gusto, honesty, assurance and the ability to foster genuine connection with people (Adair 2005, 29-30) is the fundamental composition that will bring together the entire workforce to advance towards success. A manager on the other hand is the behavioral model that these leaders ought to undertake in order to be effective in committing their roles.
One might be an effective manager but they may not be the epitome of a leader that will push an advance the organization beyond their limit. For example, Apple Corporation have had fair management control but they only attained its high innovative achiever status due to Steve Job’s charismatic and ground-breaking input that transformed the company (Shontell 2011). Thus, this highlights the empirical quality that is characteristically of leaders and not necessarily of managers.
Therefore, the style and characteristics of managers and leaders differentiate them in terms of extend of success they produce. The nature of relationship with employee is an evident difference between leaders and managers. Leaders guide with the instinct of gaining “followers” while managers have “subordinates” (Storms 2011). Leaders do not abide the conventional mode of commanding control instead act on the ground of emancipating inspiration (King 2010) and ensuring the wellbeing and progress of the team as whole.
This is because leaders are “more emotional” (Leadership Pages 1997) and are concern of the human aspect of their company. For example Phil Knight of Nike emphasizes highly on allowing mistakes and keeping a positive environment in spite of times of turmoil (Jay 2001, 92) and this train an effective pool of workers which is a result of Knight’s leadership quality of emanating inspiration and garnering trust of employees and genuine loyalty. Managers on the other hand act on a stern basis of control system.
This hierarchical positioning in turn ingests a pseudo psychological disdain of workers to managers as they feel they are being treated with contempt as subsidiaries (Katcher and Snyder 2007, 52). This will in turn limit the willingness for employees to put in the extra effort and they will thus not produce exemplary results due to the lack of loyalty and dedication. Richard Brandson (2011) instills the importance of leaders being supportive of their employees that led the success of Virgin Company.
The structural construction of the role played by managers instills this notion of quality difference of employee control in the effectiveness of managers compared to leaders. Comparing in this light, leadership must be incorporated in managerial control because to attain corporate success, it is highly essential to sustain the passion, assurance and ambition of stakeholders especially the workers as Narayana Murthy (2011), Chairman Emeritus of Infosys, suggests. Each individual have their own defining qualities and the personalities describing them might be an advantage for one in certain industries.
When these traits are combined with the managerial position, the personality traits would suit the respect the manager receive when they have high aspect of certain traits such as the Big Five Personality Traits (Waddell, Jones and George 2011, 133). It is important for managers, being in their position, to possess certain unique individuality to propel their quality and attractiveness as a leader especially in the magnificently transformed prospect of the current business environment.
Personality type is the factor that separates leaders and managers as all personals can become good managers, but good leaders are ones who are privileged with the narcissistic personality whom people look up to due to their gripping attitude and incredible ideas that galvanize others (Maccoby 2000, 72-73). Therefore, it clearly prove that in a real world situational analyses the characteristics of both managers and leaders may differ, but they are needed to corroborate one another in order to advocate and augment an effective form of leadership and management in an organization.
The inherent individual traits of a manager determine the quality of a leader it makes. At the same time, inborn leaders without the technical qualification of a manager could not execute as an effective leader. The effectiveness of an organization is highly reliant on the synergy of leadership and management quality and this create an empowerment that will transcend the organization well beyond the competitors. Leadership quality of supplying the vision of an end goal when combined with the resourceful conscientiousness of managers would create a highly effective company that has high visualization.
At the same time the common exchange of respect and inspiration they give as a leader would ingest the essence of teamwork that will propel the organization further forward as every member of the organization shares the common dedication and passion to attain their ultimate goals. This loyalty from every contributing body can only be attained when their leader has the charisma and ability to unite the organization, at the same time possess a conscientious managerial role that would instill trust in the employees that their leader would bring success.
Hence the synergy of inborn leadership traits and hardware managerial skills is the highly regarded form of leadership style that is highly respectable by the companies’ employees as well as other stakeholders and eventually become the driving force that will push the organization forward especially in the new age of business environment and ethics that is increasingly demanding and critical, as well as the democratic progress that inspire people to be more conspicuous of exercising their rights. Reference List Adair, John. 2005. How to Grow Leaders. London and Sterling, VA: Kogan Page Limited.
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