Management and Leadership Paper

Running head: MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP PAPER

Management and Leadership Paper

Gwendolyn Gransion

University of phoenix

Management: Theory, Practice, and Application

MGT 330

Kathleen Dominick

Jan 06, 2007

Management and Leadership Paper

Managers are faced with many tasks each day one of which is leading people. The term’s manager and leader are often used in the same context, but they are not synonymous. Understanding the difference between the two terms is important. The goal of a successful manager is to achieve the maximum output of the organization by way of administrative implementation.

To aid in accomplishing this goal the manager must use the four functions of management, which are organizing, planning, leading, and controlling. “Leading is stimulating people to be high performers. It includes motivating and communicating with employees, individually and groups. Leading involves close day-to-day contact with people, helping to guide and inspire them toward achieving team and organizational goals.” (Management: Leading and Collaborating in a Competitive World, by Bateman and Snell 7th edition, 2007)

“Leadership involves communicating a vision, Management is the implementation of another’s vision. To speak metaphorically, leaders build castles in the sky for the managers to live in and run.” (Robert Taylor, MD, 2003) Another way to contrast between managers and leaders is the way risk is handled. The nature of a leader is to take calculated risk and managers like to decrease risk.

Successful leaders never focus on failure they always keep their sights on making the vision a success. Leaders keep their focus in the future which make them visionaries. This often makes them seem distant and perhaps not a team player. For this reason it is important for leaders to maintain a fine balance of the-hear-and now and the future. It is imperative that leaders are able to plan for the future while paying attention to the business at hand.

Effective leaders should know the rules of the organization, understand the rules of the organization, and use the rules of the organization however they should not let their thinking be bound by the rules. By knowing the rules the leader will be able to make implementation of the vision possible while staying within the parameters of the organization. Knowing the rules of the organization will also help the leader gain the respect and trust of his subordinates, which is key in being a successful leader. Trust is also a key in making an organization function.

“A leaders build trust by always making good on his or her promises. The good leader listens a great deal, speaks less and makes promises sparingly. Some successful leaders write every promise they make and place them in a stack of “things to do,” where they remain until acted on. Others confirm a formal agreement in writing.” (Robert Taylor, MD, 2003) Good leaders know that the promises they make to subordinates will be remembered and could possibly have significant effects on the subordinate. For this reason it is important that the leader pay special attention to the promises made, and always follow through.

Another characteristic of trust is consistency of values. Subordinates must have a clear understanding of the leaders’ values. For example what is more important the well being of the staff or the advancement of the organization? Earning a good salary or getting satisfaction from a job well done? Most people do not expect leaders to be saints just consistent in their values.

“A popular view is that managers work to optimize the deployment of resources like people, time and materials within a set of constraints, or boundary conditions, like the cost of labor or materials, the time and cash available, or an empirically measured function such as that relating price and demand. Manager’s work, according to a poplar view, within a structure of relative priorities set by leaders, not concerning themselves with whatever justifications underpin those priorities.” (Mulhauser Consulting, 2003)

Although the view mentioned above is a popular, to summarize that managers lack vision and are focused only on reaching the goal, whatever the goal may be likely but incorrect. For this view does not recognize the creative aspects of management. Managers are usually experienced in their field, and have worked their way up the company