Management and leadership are two phenomena that have often been subjects of discussion among scholastic fields, especially with regards to their differences and aims of each. In this discussion paper, leadership and management are differentiated based on the people who are recipients of both. In this case then, leadership will be defined as having people follow, while management is having people work for the person in charge. This discussion premises its thesis on this statement.
Leadership largely revolves around sensitizing the following of the vision of the organization and rallying them to achieve the common objective behind the vision. On the other hand, management is more of ensuring daily operations is administered as they should. Therefore, it is arguable that leadership embodies a collaborative spirit with those working under the leader for the achievement of common objectives (Go 2 HR, 2017). In contrast, management depicts a scenario where juniors work for the superior to ensure daily administrative functions are met. While this may be in view of long-term objectives, it lacks the partner approach taken by leadership to meet organizational objectives. As a result, people follow the leader to the organizational objective, while they work for the manager to meet short-term organizational objectives.
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Bearing in mind the above description, it is challenging to have both leadership and management skills as people rarely have the vision and the means to achieving it. Most vision-bearers find efficient managers while good managers work for vision-bearers (Srivastava, Bartol, & Locke, 2006). While somebody can be good at both, it is extremely difficult. Nevertheless, Bill Gates was effective at both during the formative stages of Microsoft. Alongside his partners, they managed both the visionary approach to computer software production and the daily administrative duties of the organization at its formative stage. However, there was a need to bring on board specialist managers to take the organization to the next level, which they did. In conclusion then, a good manager is not automatically a good leader. This is because the leader’s role is to grasp the vision and see the product. If the manager does not have this capability, leadership is not their expertise.
References
Go 2 HR. (2017). UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCES: LEADERSHIP VS. MANAGEMENT . Retrieved from Go 2 HR: https://www.go2hr.ca/articles/understanding-differences-leadership-vs-management
Srivastava, A., Bartol, K. M., & Locke, E. A. (2006). Empowering leadership in management teams: Effects on knowledge sharing, efficacy, and performance. Academy of management journal, 49(6) , 1239-1251.
