Management and Leadership

Management and leadership although I believe are tantamount in style but different in theory. I believe management is the act of managing something, manner, or practice of managing, handling, supervision, or control. Management requires the process of working with people and resources to accomplish organizational goals.

To become a successful manager, you must possess leadership skills. When leadership and management are clearly distinguished, you must identify areas for change and have the courage to support change to show leadership. Being a good manager does not show that you are a good leader.

Leaders think radically and managers think incrementally. Based on the statement made by Richard Pascale, the book Managing on the Edge, managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing (Pascale, 1990, p. 65). Managers do things by the book and follow company policy, while leaders follow their own intuition, which is more benefit to the organization. I believe a leader is more affecting than a manager. I believe people would naturally follow a leader through their own choice, whereas a manager it must be obeyed. A manager may only have obtained his position of authority through time and loyalty given to the company, not as a result of his leadership qualities. A leader may have no organizational skills, but his vision unites people behind him. Management personnel are experienced in their field, and who have worked their way up the company. A manager knows how each layer of the system works and may also possess a good technical knowledge. A leader can be a new arrival to a company who has bold, fresh, new ideas but might not have experience or wisdom (e.g. Pascale, 2003).

There are reasons some technically proficient managers are not inspiring leaders. One is managers not understanding that equally important skill sets (technical, managerial, and leadership), are necessary to add maximum value. As one skill set moves up in the organization, the successful fulfillment of leadership responsibilities adds the most value. Second, managers are having little awareness that leadership is a completely distinct skill set, more an affair of the heart (emotion) than the head (analysis). An effective leader influence and encourage employees to give the gift of their discretionary effort, which is their creativity and commitment. This way the organization can ensure that they are designing and delivering products and services that are superior those of the competition. An employee gives this gift of commitment when the leader behaviors make the employee feel part of the winning team, show that the employee is making a difference, and caring about the employee as a person. When managers spend the majority of their time analyzing productivity and budgeting, they often ignore the inspiring side of leading people. Managers have lack of insight into factors influencing human behaviors and motivation.

Innovate, innovate, innovate is the tune regularly chanted by senior leaders (Birla, 2005, p. 41). I believe people want feel that they are making a difference. They want to feel that work matters. Employees want to make creative contributions and want their companies to succeed and to grow. Therefore, they will have opportunities for personal and professional growth.

Mr. Madan Birla gave root causes that explained disparities between the desire for innovation and the realities of the business world (e.g. Birla, 2005). One is lack of supportive leadership practices and organizational processes. It is essential to talk with employees and managers at different levels when working with organization to build an innovation culture. I believe employees resist in developing and unleashing their creative potential because of indecisive management, micromanaging, closed-minded managers who are not willing to listen to new ideas, and fear of failure. The second root cause is lack of understanding that innovation is imperative. There is still resistance and belief that new ideas are an option instead of a necessity. In hard times, companies are unwilling to make the leap to innovation. The final one is lack of collaborative thinking across departments and disciplines. I agree. Company could grow much faster and improve profitability if there were better alignments between departments, manufacturing and logistics, and so on.

One of the responsibilities a leader should maintain a healthy organizational culture is to reduce job stress. Job stress can be defined as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. Job stress can lead to poor health and even injury. The concept of job stress is often confused with challenge, but these concepts are not the same. Challenge energizes us psychologically and physically, and it motivates us to learn new skills and master our jobs.