The words “Manager” and
“Leader” are used interchangeably. It was once believed that effectively
managing an organisation was principally a matter of managing its structures
and processes. Professor Abraham Zaleznik (Harvard Business School - 1977)
challenged this view, arguing that there was another aspect to management, concerned
with vision, inspiration, and the human side of things.
Using Zaleznik’s work as a
foundation, John P. Kotter argued that effectively managing organisations
required a balance between management and leadership, in which he postulated that
there were two distinct aspects. He cited the key differences between a Manager
and an effective Leader as:
Managers:
- Focus and follow specific processes
- Prioritise stability and control
- Have positional authority
- Exercise control
Leaders:
- Challenge the status quo
- Are patient within chaos and a lack
of structure
- Create a vision
- Guide people through change
- May have authority, which is not a
necessary condition for demonstrating Leadership
However, it is critical to
note that these differences don't make one approach (Manager or Leader) better
than the other, as organisations need strong Managers and effective Leaders.
Many organisations are overly-managed and under-led, which makes it essential to
nurture the development of practical Leadership skills. Anyone within an
organisation can be a great Leader. Leaders encourage autonomy to engender a
level of self-motivation in staff.
Research suggests that there
isn’t necessarily a one-size-fits-all approach to effective Leadership. Instead,
leading from a person’s unique strengths yields better results than trying to
emulate other Leaders. This does have connotations as effective Leaders come in
many diverse forms, with different strengths and weaknesses in Leadership
styles that work effectively within a given set of circumstances and
environments. What is seen as weak Leadership in one given set of circumstances
may prove to be a strength elsewhere.
Revolutionary Leadership
styles may work best in entrepreneurial environments where change can be
engendered instantly without any barriers to change being encountered. In more
stable environments where people are reluctant and unengaged towards change,
leadership styles may be based on longer-term goals, aspirations, and
attainments. Effective Leaders know, embrace, and capitalise upon their
strengths while also acknowledging and managing their weaknesses within a
suitable organisational culture.
The concept of culture
combines a range of elements from people’s upbringing, history, and community, resulting
in many characteristics that can cause cultural differences in the workplace.
A diverse workplace contains people of different ages, experiences,
religions, and economic backgrounds. Some of the key cultural aspects that impact
Leadership within an organisation are:
- Generational
- Ethnic
- Religious
- Educational
The most effective Leaders
incessantly focus on their team's strengths, empowering each staff member to do
their best to contribute to achieving the team and organisation's goals and
objectives. Focusing on staff strengths usually leads to higher staff
engagement and well-being, huge gains in the organisation’s financial
performance, and the greatest attainment of customer service.
The critical role of a
leader is to ensure that the staff, team, and organisational vision and
operational aims and objectives come together as one, most efficiently and
effectively utilising the minimum of resources.
Effective Leaders recognise
that they can’t excel at everything; they surround themselves with people who
have complementary strengths, qualities, and skill sets, resulting in high-performing
teams. However, they also understand and honour the four basic needs that team
members have within the team:
- Trust
- Stability
- Hope
- Compassion
People are motivated to
collaborate with Leaders they can depend on, who genuinely care about them,
provide a solid and reliable foundation, and inspire them with hope for the
future. A combination of these generic qualities and self-awareness is a
crucial factor that makes for an effective leader. Traits that the most
effective Leaders possess include:
- Communication skills
- Negotiation abilities
- Emotional intelligence
- People empathy
- Moral integrity
- Creativity ingenuity
The primary difference
between a Manager and a Leader is that a Manager depends primarily on their
skills, whilst Leaders depend on their characteristics. Effective Managers
possess three essential skills:
- Functional and technical knowledge
and abilities
- People and team management
- Operational conceptual skills
Effective Leaders use six
primary Leadership styles to influence an organisation effectively:
- Visionary
- Coaching
- Affiliative
- Democratic
- Pacesetting
- Commanding
The biggest issue for most
organisations is translating their strategic intent into the tactical and
operational plans required to establish their goals and objectives. There is a
perception that Leaders only exist at the higher levels of management; however,
a truly effective organisation understands that Leaders exist at all levels of
the management structure.
Of primary importance for an
organisation is being able to translate the strategic organisational vision
into a Mission Statement that the rest of the organisation will “buy” into. The
critical success elements of the vision must be aligned with the personal
beliefs and ambitions of those who can translate the Mission Statement into
tactical and operational plans to achieve the organisation's goals and
objectives.
Most organisations fail to
understand that translating the organisation's vision into a strategy may not
happen at the higher levels of management or within the functions traditionally
responsible for setting the organisation's strategic intent. The translation of
vision into strategy increasingly occurs within the middle management
structure.
The great danger is that the
political intent of senior management quite often stifles and chokes this
transformation, especially if the resultant strategy does not align with the organisation's
visionary intent or where the political intent of specific senior Managers is
allowed to have an unfair or unjustified level of impact upon the middle
management structure's abilities to lead effectively within an otherwise
entrepreneurial environment.
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