Manager or Leader Management and leadership are two terms that are commonly used interchangeably though they refer to relatively different concepts. Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson (2013) define management as a process that involves working with and through people and groups as well as allocating resources toward accomplishing organizational goals. On the other hand, leadership is a wider concept than management since it involves influencing the behavior of a person or group for whatever reason. Since leadership is a wider concept, management is a certain type of leadership whose main focus is the achievement of organizational goals. This implies that management is limited in terms of its focus on organizational goals while leadership is wider since it emphasizes influencing others for whatever reason. The leadership process may entail influencing others for personal reasons or for the purpose and benefit of others. These goals may be in line with or differ from organizational goals, which in turn demonstrates the wider nature of the concept of leadership.

Even though management and leadership are relatively different, managers need to possess leadership skills. Leadership skills are essential in management because the latter requires influencing others toward the achievement of organizational goals. In essence, it’s impossible for a manager to successful work with others toward achieving organizational objectives without influence. My current principal is a manager who has some positive and negative leadership characteristics....

Based on her attributes and what constitutes a good leader, she is not a good leader. This is primarily because she has more negative characteristics than positive ones. The only positive characteristic about my current principal is that she is knowledgeable about school law, policy and procedures. Her knowledge and understanding of these law, policy and procedures is critical toward her effectiveness as a manager in accomplishing the school’s objectives.
However, I believe she is not a good leader because she portrays more negative characteristics, which inhibit her effectiveness in influencing others toward achievement of the school’s goals and objectives. She tends to be inconsistent, closed-minded, assign blame, and ego-centric. Additionally, she is not a good leader because she lacks transparency in nearly all her responsibilities and is a poor communicator.

Competencies of Leadership and Skills of a Manager

Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson (2013) state that there are three competencies of leadership i.e. diagnosing, adapting, and communicating. These three competencies of leadership are critical towards the effectiveness of a leader in influencing others for personal reasons or for the benefit of others. Diagnosing is regarded as a cognitive or cerebral competency of leadership since it entails understanding the particular situation to be influenced. Good leaders need to understand the current situation as it is and know what it would look like in the future after influencing it.…