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Leadership And Management – Relationship & Differences

Leadership and management are intertwined concepts, both requiring skills to effectively guide and manage a team. However, their differences can be stark.

Some individuals in the company might have both management and leadership responsibilities. While there are critical relationships between leaders and managers, the differences are even more important to understand.

Leaders set visions and inspire with their own passion, while managers plan strategies to help those visions come true. Leaders drive progress through empowerment and engaging employees in the process, while managers maintain order and uphold stability through maintaining structure.

Leaders take risks which may not pay off in the short run, but have long term gain potential due to creativity; whereas managers proceed with caution or solidify existing processes by building on known foundations.

Management is much more focused on ensuring that a company’s day-to-day business gets done. However, leaders use their imagination and vision to seek rewards and opportunities and boost their team’s creative process.

Management’s goals arise out of necessity, while the goals of leadership result from an active and personal attitude of growth. Companies need managers and leaders to survive, boost and thrive in the market.

The first step to ensuring that your business has highly skilled individuals in leadership and management positions is understanding the relationship and differences between these essential roles.

The path for success all begins with communication. Leaders must learn how to communicate clear directions and motivate others working towards it; managers must emphasize positive feedback and accountability for tasks performed.

Ultimately, successful leaders lead from within supported by a strong management system – only then will teams reach heights never imagined before.

Definition of Leadership

The skill of leading a certain group of people and inspiring them towards giving them direction is known as Leadership. It is an interpersonal process which involves influencing a person or a group of people in the organisation, to ensure the achievement of objectives, willingly and enthusiastically.

A leader is someone who has many people following him, as their inspiration and gets motivated by it. Leadership requires a good vision of thinking out of the box.

In an organization, you can see a variety of leaders who are responsible for the work of their team members. For the achievement of a single objective, the employees of the organisation are divided into teams and each team is assigned a task and a leader is appointed to look after that task

Five essential traits of a leader:

1) Vision

A leader knows where they stand in the organisation, and where they want to go and tend to involve the team member in charting a future path and direction.

2) Honesty and Integrity

Leaders have people who believe and get motivated and walk by their side down the path the leader sets.

3) Inspiration

Leaders are usually inspirational—and help their team members to understand their own roles in an organisation.

4) Communication Skills

Leaders always keep their team informed about what’s happening in the organisation, both present and the future—along with any obstacles that stand in their way.

5) Ability to Challenge

Leaders have their own style of doing things and problem-solving and usually think outside the box.

Six ways to improve your leadership skills

1. Identify your strengths and weaknesses

People usually don’t know their own strengths and weaknesses. It’s worth understanding these so you can grow leadership skills in you. For this make a list of both your strengths and your weaknesses and to be true and as specific as possible don’t worry if your list is long or short.

When evaluating your strengths and weaknesses, it might be a good idea to ask for feedback from others which will help you to develop a better understanding of yourself and learn how to make the most of your talents.

2. Take leadership courses

One of the best ways to improve your leadership skills is to take online courses that provide you with the knowledge and skills needed to be an effective leader.

3. Grow your hard skills

Technical skills are becoming increasingly important nowadays. It’s essential, therefore, for leaders to have a strong grasp and growth of the skills relevant to their industry.

4. Determine your goals

As a leader, it’s important to have a clear vision for your team members. Without this, it can be difficult to make decisions and provide direction to others. To become a good leader, determine your goals, and start by thinking about what you want to achieve in the short term and long term.

6. Admit your failure and move on

Everyone makes mistakes in life. As a leader, it’s important to admit when you’ve failed and learn from that mistake. This shows your team members that you’re human and willing to learn from your mistakes.

Top 5 leadership books

1. Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek

Like many great leadership books, Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek gives inspiration from military principles.

Simon makes the case that people-first leadership makes crews feel supported and respected by the team. These feelings in turn compel team members to exhibit loyalty towards the organization and exceed expectations.

Sinek states that trust and psychological safety are the main to excellence, illustrating this argument with multiple examples from different types of organizations and leaders around the world.

2. Lean In Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sanderson

is One of the most popular leadership books for women leaders. Inspired by personal experience and a TED Talk Sanderson gave back in 2010, In this book, there are ways women hold back and miss career opportunities by being passive and polite.

Which encourages women to seek strong mentors, advocate for themselves, and assert their place in the business world.

3. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell

Has guidelines for leaders to follow to maximize influence and ensure that team members achieve a common vision.

The book shares wisdom such as “leadership develops daily, not in a day,” and “leaders get to understand that activity is not necessarily accomplishment.”

4. Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts by Brené Brown

Dare to Lead shares lessons on the power of vulnerability and empathy in leadership which a person should know. Renowned “courage and shame” researcher Brené Brown makes the case that leadership is not about status or managing, but rather recognizing the potential in individuals and ideas. Dare to Lead showcase a guide to becoming a courageous and confident leader.

5. The Mentor Leader: Secrets to Building People and Teams That Win Consistently by Tony Dungy

In this book, the Mentor Leader explains how to elevate those around you towards success by just following one simple principle: “your only job is to help your players be better.” By outlining the critical elements of mentor leadership, including introspection, an altruistic mindset, and modelling values.

Definition of Management

Management can be defined as a process of getting the work or the task done needed for achieving an organisation’s goals in an efficient and effective manner. Process implies the functions of the management in the organisation. Planning, organising, staffing, and controlling.

A manager is a professional who takes a leadership role in an organisation and manages a team of employees and staff. Managers are responsible for managing a specific department in their organisation. There are different types of managers, but they usually have duties like conducting performance reviews and making decisions.

Four essential traits of a manager:

1) The ability to create a Vision

Managers build a strategic vision and create a roadmap for their team to follow.

2) The ability to direct

Managers are responsible for daily efforts while reviewing necessary resources, and anticipating a need to make changes along the process.

3) Process Management

Managers have the authority to establish new work rules, processes, new standards, and operating procedures.

4) Problem-solver

Managers are known to look after the needs of the employees such as listening to them, involving them in certain key decisions, and accommodating reasonable requests for change to contribute to increased productivity.

Four ways to improve your management skills

1. Clear, direct communication

The most important skill you need to become a manager is clear communication.

2. Active listening

While it’s true being a good listener is also a big part of being a strong communicator, the act of listening is in itself an art that all managers strive to do on a regular basis.

3. Delegation

The ability to delegate effectively is an important asset for any successful manager and one that often takes a bit of time to master.

4. Knowing how to praise effectively

Saying thank you, complimenting a job well done and taking a moment to share your employees’ successes with others are just a few ways of being a good manager.

Challenges in management

1) Communicating effectively

Since there’s often a divide between manager and employee tasks, there may seem to be a line dividing managers from their employees regarding the existing power to complete tasks. This can lead to team members feeling uncomfortable when presenting issues to managers.

2) Motivating your team

It’s a challenge for both you and your employees, tasks can become uninteresting, and meetings can seem redundant if not done right. The result is that team members might question the need for specific processes.

3) Fostering teamwork

Many, if not most, tasks or projects require productive collaboration among employees. However, team members’ work styles may vary according to the environment.

Even if these styles differ according to employees, managers like yourself remain responsible for creating work environments that merge these approaches and help members adapt to complete their projects.

4) Handling conflicts among team members

Just as disagreements may arise between friends or couples, work relationships can have their own bouts of tension. If left to rot, these disagreements can destroy cohesion within teams and interfere with the organisation’s work environment.

Top 5 management books

1) How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

The book talks about the importance of soft skills in managerial as well as personal lives. This classic shares some timeless advice such as the importance of a smile, the need to avoid complaining from others and making people feel important.

2) The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell

This book entails the different traits and leadership techniques in a way that is simple to read, comprehend and easy to apply. It gives you real-life stories hidden with leadership advice and exercises to improve your leadership style.

3) Good to Great by Jim Collins

is a management book that describes the transition from being a good to a great manager journey and how most companies fail to make the transition through a series of case studies.

4) The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

The book is a concise, easily-read story that reveals three very practical secrets: Minutes Goals, One Minute Praisings, and One Minute Reprimands of managers. This is why the book has continued to appear on business bestseller lists for more than two decades and has managed to become a global sensation as well.

5) The Making Of A Manager by Julie Zhuo

The book teaches you how to build trust within a team, what to focus on in the first few months, how to get better results from the team member, how to cope with increased responsibility and many other essential management topics.

Relationships between both leaders and managers, including

  • Both work to unlock the complete potential of their teams and employees.
  • They focus primarily on improving the company.
  • Both communicate policies and changes in the firm.
  • They both get involved in an organization’s daily activities.
  • They need the same level of education and skills.
  • They both act as role models in different capacities.
  • They both work to set the strategies and future needs of the organisation.
Header

Leadership

Management

Personality Styles

Leaders are also often seen as loners and private people. They are comfortable taking risks, sometimes seemingly wild and crazy risks. Almost all leaders have high imagination.

Tend to be rational, under-control problem solvers. They often focus on goals, structures, personnel, and availability of resources. Managers’ personalities lean toward persistence, strong will, analysis, and intelligence.

Orientation

People Orientation

Task Orientation

Focus 

Leading people

Managing

Outcomes

Achievements

Results in

Approach to tasks

Simply look at problems and devise new, creative solutions. Using their charisma and commitment, they excite, motivate, and focus others to solve problems and excel.

Create strategies, policies, and methods to create teams and ideas that combine to operate smoothly. They empower people by soliciting their views, values, and principles.

They believe that this combination reduces inherent risk and generates success

Role in decision-making

Facilitative

Involved

Styles

Transformational, Consultative & Participative

Dictatorial, Authoritative, Transactional, Autocratic, Consultative and Democratic

Power through

Influence

Formal authority & Position

Summary

In an organisation, you can see both management and leadership. There is a manager in a department and a number of leaders who work with their teams in assisting the company in the accomplishment of goals.

Many times managers play the role of a leader as well, at the demand of the company. So they both go side by side as a complement to each other. An organisation needs both a manager and a leader for its growth and survival.

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