Leadership and Management
Management and leadership are essential in business. The two are the key drivers to the achievement of the goals of an organization. Despite the two terms used interchangeably, they are very different. A leader is an individual who guides his followers while a manager is an individual who has people working under him. A leader can also be a manager. The combination of the two characteristics helps a team of workers work effectively toward their goals.
Some of the other key differences between a leader and manager are leaders take risks and consider the long-term vision while managers control the risks and think short term goals. Moreover, leaders coach and have followers while managers give directions and have employees. Leaders also make changes and are foresighted while a manager reacts to the changes and is intelligent (Kinick &Williams, 2020).
An excellent example of a leader is Bill Gates. He is considered one of the top business leaders in the United States of America. I believe him as a leader because he took risks with Microsoft Company. Moreover, he nurtured and encouraged many people to be innovative and creative. He also had a long-term goal for Microsoft to become the leading technology company in the future.
Leaders need charisma to introduce the aspect of change in any business. It’s an essentiality to any transformational leader to help in inspiring and motivating followers as the leader guides them through the transition. Moreover, charismatic, transformational leaders can listen and consider the followers’ contributions such that they feel part of the ream. Thus, they aid in teamwork. Their ability to relate with each individual creates room for more creativity and Innovations, thus making the transformation effective.
People who are not overly charismatic can still be transformational leaders. Some leaders do not have charisma, but people follow them because of their expertise and knowledge. Such leaders speak with authority and have gained their followers’ trust because followers know that they have what it takes to lead them. Charisma is good because it quickly helps to influence people into agreeing with the leader. However, it can easily lead to a speedy downfall of the firm in case of slight mistakes.
Changes in an organization will necessitate the transformational leader to become ethical. There are some steps that the leaders can take to be moral, such as leading by example for people to follow. Moreover, they need to be inspired to motivate their people to work into success. Additionally, they need to help the employees to promote themselves as they work for the company so that the workers add value to their lives and the firm in general.
In a managerial function, controlling can be very difficult. It is because; it is a progressive cycle that needs constant checking and persistence. For instance, one needs to monitor progress consistently as well as compare its results against the goals. If one fails to be persistent, performance will fail. Also, checking us necessary to ensure corrective action is taken at the required time to prevent failure. Moreover, controlling requires strictness and expertise to control effectively.
Some challenges involved with controlling include difficulty in putting into place quantitative standards, especially for human behavior. Moreover, external factors affect control that no one can control, like changes in technology and government policies. Also, some workers can become resistant to the control measures used in the firm, and monitoring can be quite costly, thus adding to the operational and maintenance costs of the firm.
In conclusion, leadership and management are similar in some ways, but very different. A good example if a leader in business is Bill Gates, majorly because of his ability to take risks and have long-term goals for Microsoft Corporation. Transformational leaders can get charismatic, but it is not necessary for all leaders, and controlling as a managerial function can be hard with numerous disadvantages like increased operational costs.
Reference
Kinick, A., and Williams, B. K. (2020). Management- A Practical Introduction. Newyork: McGraw-Hill Education, ninth edition.