Leadership and management

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Leadership is closely linked to the idea of management, and can be either centralized or decentralized as well as broad or focused. There is a view that there is reciprocal relationship between leadership and management, that is, an effective manager must have leadership skills, and an effective leader must have management skills.

To paraphrase Warren Bennis, the difference between them is that leaders are inspiring visionaries, concerned about substance, and managers are planners, concerned with process.

Managers ask how and when, leaders ask what and why
Managers focus on systems, leaders focus on people
Managers do things right, leaders do the right things
Managers maintain, leaders develop
Managers rely on control, leaders inspire trust
Managers have a short-term perspective, leaders have a longer-term perspective
Managers accept the status-quo, leaders challenge the status-quo
Managers have an eye on the bottom line, leaders have an eye on the horizon
Managers imitate, leaders originate
Managers emulate the classic good soldier, leaders are their own person
Managers copy, leaders show originality

In general, managers concern themselves with tasks and leaders concern themselves with people. This is not to say that leaders do not focus on the task. Indeed, one thing that characterises a great leader is that they achieve. The difference is that the leader realises that the achievement of the task comes about through the goodwill and support of others, while the manager may not.

This goodwill and support is generated by seeing people as people, not as another resource to be deployed in support of the task. The manager often has the role of organizing resources to get something done. People form one of these resources, and many of the worst managers treat people as just another interchangeable item. A leader has the role of causing others to follow a path or a vision he/she has created in order to achieve a task. Often the task is seen as subordinate to the vision. For instance, an organization might have the overall task of generating profit, but a good leader will see profit as a by-product that flows from whatever aspect of their vision differentiates their company from the competition.

Most of us can think of an inspiring leader we have met in our lives who has nothing whatever to do with business. Similarly, management is not purely business-related either.

Differences in the mix of leadership and management can define various management styles. Some management styles tend to be relatively weak on leadership. Included in this group one could include participatory management, micro-management, and top-down management.

Having a single leader (as in dictatorship) allows for quick and decisive decision-making when needed as well as when not needed.

[edit] Managerial Skills

Management skills are based on leadership behavior. Skills alone do not make leaders - style and behavior do. Even if leadership is different to management. Leadership relies on management skills, but as well on qualities such as integrity, honesty, humility, courage, commitment, sincerity, passion, confidence, positivity, wisdom, determination, compassion and sensitivity. Some people are born more naturally to leadership than others. Most people don't seek to be a leader. It is crucial to understand the impact of leader’s behavior on the followers and the organization. Some skills can be developed and managerial tools learned to support the manager’s work.

Basic Managerial skills