Leadership Versus Management, Essay Example

The terms management and leadership are commonly interchangeable in business context but in reality, a great discrepancy exist between the two terms. In an organization, the duties of the manager include managing people in teams to make sure that their activities are running smoothly. The authority of a manager is based on the role bestowed upon him or her. Managers have their duties focused on the tactical activities and their approach of doing work is directive as well as controlling. Their responsibilities facilitate for the daily implementation of tasks scheduled for the employees through effective management of activities. The success of managers is gauged on their competence in organizing people in a manner that the daily activities are accomplished (Stephen & Mary, 2011).

On the other hand, a leader should possess characteristics of being strategically focused as opposed to being able to direct employees in their daily tasks. Leaders have the potential for motivating and inspiring employees towards driving themselves through application of emotional intelligence. Leadership therefore implies to ability of doing the right thing in the workplace while management implies the ability of doing things in the right way in the workplace (Forsyth, 2009).

While the authority of a manager is derived from the role in the organization, the authority of a leader is innate and inherent to their approach. It is very difficult to learn leadership skills as they are more of behavioral nature as compared to the skills of management (Stephen & Mary, 2011). Leaders are also able to focus on potential change in the organization and hence plan for continued improvement of the activities of employees leading to greater success. Leadership is a social influence that results to support to other people facilitating for accomplishment of a common goal.

References

Forsyth, D. R., (2009). Group dynamics, 5^th Ed. CA: Brooks/Cole.

Stephen, P. R. & Mary, C., (2011). Management, 11^th Ed. Prentice Hall.