More Than a Manager a Leader

¶ … Manager: A Leader Leaders and business managers are valued commodity in the workplace. A leader is someone who can offer a compelling invitation for others to take action, while managers manage and accomplish work through others. Leaders lead and motivate people to higher levels, often giving people purpose to what they do, while managers tend to be more mechanical and provide authority based on the administrative level. Today's leader needs a multitude of characteristics including an ability to develop a vision, and an ability to articulate that vision.

Some of the traits of leaders are honesty, energy, a thirst for learning and commitment. Vision in regards to the leader refers to visualizing a future state. The leader has a clear picture of what the future looks like. Moreover, a leader has a clear picture of achieving that vision (Godin, 11). In addition, an effective leader must also be able to communicate that vision to others. Without an ability to communicate what that future state is, others cannot help the leader to achieve it.

Leaders recognize first and foremost that it is only through the efforts of others that work is accomplished. Some of the personal traits of effective leaders are that they are honest in dealing with others. This includes being fair with a good sense of right and wrong. In the broadest sense of the word, these leaders are honest in their views of the world. The perceptive leaders also possess a great deal of energy. This means working at an exceptionally high energy level.

The excitement of the work and enthusiasm keep the leader going and able to sustain the necessary high energy level. Commitment is also an essential quality in the effective leader. Commitment helps others to see the vision. Finally, the great leader has a thirst for knowledge that drives everything that is done. That is, the perceptive leader recognizes the value of knowledge and understands that learning is a life-long process (Weathersby, 5).

In contrast, Managers often rely on their legitimate power or the authority by very virtue of their position in the organization. Leaders rely on other sources of power to accomplish their work. Managers follow specific rules and are comfortable with bureaucracy. That can also mean that managers are more reactive and stay within the organizational boundaries. Organizations need both managers and leaders. Managers are the people who have the legitimate authority and corresponding responsibility in the organization. However, leaders inspire the people for doing their best in the organization.

Managers need to be cognizant of the fact that being a manager does not automatically imply being a leader (Colvard, 82). A manager must consciously work to develop leadership characteristics. Being a manager in today's organizations is not enough. To contribute to the organization, the manager must also be a leader. In other words, management and leadership are not the same thing. The two are related, but their central functions are different. Managers provide leadership, and leaders perform management functions. But managers do not perform the unique functions of leaders.

Becoming a leader requires understanding oneself (Colvard, 82). There are various tools available to help with that assessment. According to (Colvard, 82), the following are the key differences between leaders and managers: Leaders look to celebrate the successes of their followers as often as possible. They recognize, reward, and praise their people frequently. Second, effective leaders are trustworthy, as creating a foundation of trust encourages commitment among the employees. Third, leaders are ready to provide the required training to assure that their followers are prepared for their jobs and responsibilities.

They encourage collective intelligence and working with others (Robinson, 21). On the other hand, managers, without leadership qualities, drift into administrative roles, to the exclusion of the more creative processes of management. They often rely on doing the obvious, but often feel threatened with the unknown. Managers' critical concern is efficiency, as they look for similarities between current and previous problems. Managers are focused on the short-term, ensuring that resources are expended and progress is made within time frames of days, weeks and months.

Some of the key differences between leaders and managers are that leaders are visionary, while managers are realists. Leadership deals with uncertainty and is focused on the long-term, while management involves looking at the facts and assessing the status for an action. Leadership is focused on effectiveness-doing the right thing, while management's concern is with the efficiency. Leadership focuses on the creation of a common vision (Weathersby, 5). It means motivating people to contribute to the vision and encouraging them to align their self-interest with that of the organization.

It means persuading, not commanding, while management involves command and orders that are ordained to the managerial roles. Finally, the key differences between leaders and managers lie in understanding their roles. Leaders are anxious for taking new roles and sharing responsibilities with their followers, while managers often look for fixed sets of roles and responsibilities that are ordained to them bureaucratically. Leaders look for change and creativity, while managers look for stability and similarities.

In addition, while leaders are often ready to lead to uncharted territory, while managers often look for the simpler ways for getting things done (Godin, 11). Therefore, it is fair to say that leaders inspire people with their courage of handling the difficult crisis, while managers often breed mediocrity. In sum, our thesis reflects that to be successful in today's organizations, both managers and leaders are required. Without managers, getting everyday organizational tasks become difficult.

Since in every organization, a majority of tasks are often considered routines, managers are required to get these things to be done in time within a predetermined amount of the budget. Moreover, managers are required for enhancing the efficiency of the organization, because.