Essay on Leadership Assessment

“Managers do things right, while leaders do the right things” (Bennis, 2007). There are many definitions of leadership, and each definition is different from others. The leader can be defined as the person with followers; the leader needs integrity to be a leader (Yukl, 1989). Leadership is a social influence on the group of people, on the other hand, the group of people working together to achieve the organization’s goal is management. Leadership is a quality in few to lead effectively whereas management is a process or art to accomplish specific goals of an organization (Bohoris & Vorria, 2018). This research paper discusses the essential elements of leadership and management along with the difference in their role based on Kotter and Bennis.

The activities or functions involved in leadership and management are unique. Since both the leaders and managers are influencing others to achieve predefined goals by using their powers, therefore, they share few similarities (Northouse, 2007). Leaders are concerned about long-term goals hence they encourage new methods based on the scenario whereas, managers are focused on smoothly running an organization (Yukl, 1989). The workplace has become vigorous and therefore any organization needs both managers with leadership qualities and vice versa (Kotterman, 2006).

There are many essential elements that both leaders and managers have. For example, the leader has inspirational and motivational characteristics that help the leader to create passion amongst the followers to follow the vision and reach the goal (Kotter, 1990). The leader has the risk-taking ability to achieve the aims and challenges (Bennis and Nanus, 1997). The leaders are always aware of the benefits of their followers thus many followers are voluntarily following the leader. The other essential elements of leadership are toughness, trust, decisive, selflessness, creativity, communication. Along with these essential elements a leader should be charismatic and have a positive attitude to influence people in the right direction (Algahtani, 2014).

Likewise, managers are focused on directing and controlling the group of people or a system, structures, resources, etc. (Kotter, 2001). Unlike leaders, managers are focused on short-term goals by establishing stabilization and avoiding risk to enhance efficiency (Kotterman, 2006). The subordinate follows the direction given by the manager through transactional style, here transaction is referred to as salary for the work (Kotter, 2001). Effective management is primarily depending on technical skills, human skills, and conceptual skills. Technical skill is expertise in a specific type of work, the type of work could be any specialized field that may require using techniques or tools. The ability to work along with a group of people is known as human skills, this allows managers to interact with members of a team to achieve goals, whereas the ability to work with ideas is conceptual skills. In addition to these essential skills, a manager needs other qualities such as organizational skills, delegation skills, negotiation skills, and most importantly great communication skills (Algahtani, 2014).

The Harvard Business School recently argued that leadership and management are two different terms balancing the system of action within the organization (Kotter, 1990). In summary, coping with changes in leadership whereas coping with complexities is management (Kotter, 1987). Kotter provides the role that primarily involved in leadership, establish a vision for the business/organization, develop a strategy and communicate with followers or employees/ people to align them with the vision, and, motivating and inspiring the followers to implement the vision through empowerment and fulfilling basic needs. The organization experienced change and uncertainty during the leadership process (Algahtani, 2014). One of the present-day examples of a transactional leader is Bill Gates. Bill Gates consistently inspires his followers in a positive direction. He has extraordinary vision, and he is committed to his work. In addition to that Bill Gates always motivate his employees through the motivation strategy of reward-punishment (Asghar, 2018).

Management role, on the other hand, involves the planning of tasks and budgeting, organizing of the work, staffing, problem-solving, and, controlling. Unlike the leadership process, the management role brings stability to the organization, and it reduces uncertainty (Algahtani, 2014). In short, management acts as an implementing force of the leaders and their vision, which involves, handling daily issues, staffing, and coordinating the team or organization (House, 1997).

The distinction between managers and leaders is essential in the 21^st century. The new generation needs leaders and not managers. Leaders fight against an environment that has turbulence, volatility, ambiguousness which is working against people and suffocating everyone, whereas managers give up in such an environment (Bennis, 1989).

It is important to have a distinction between leadership and management function despite the two are sharing similar roles. To control and inspire the people is the primary role of both leaders and managers. However, the main difference between both leaders and managers is their approach to reach their goals. Managers have formal powers through which they exercise their control, whereas leaders exercise their control through their vision, and by inspiring and motivating the followers towards their vision (The Guardian, 2013). An organization needs to balance the role of both leadership and management; however, all managers need to become leaders to achieve success (Mullins, 2010).

Work cited

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