Managers and leaders fall under leadership and management categories within an organization; therefore, the two must go hand in hand. However, leadership and management are not the same. Therefore, a manager and a leader have different roles within an organization.
As a leader involves people in the running of a firm through empowering and directing them to do activities in the right way, managers, on the other hand, are concerned with doing things right irrespective of other key aspects like the dreams, vision, and future of both employees and the company. Managers act as supervisors. According to Warren Bennis, “Managers do things right but leaders do the right things” (Leadership is not the same as Management, 2011).
A further illustration of the differences shows that a leader acts as a guider while managers manage tasks. In this aspect, leaders can inspire employees, thus motivating them to work towards achieving the strategic goals and objectives of the company, as well as assisting them overcome their weaknesses. Managers control people and systems, with less one-on-one engagement with workers.
Again, leaders never accept situations the way they are; they are risk-takers and have innovative minds to meet challenges in order to get the best out of any strategy (What is the Difference Between Management and Leadership?, n.d.). With little time to challenges the way things are in an organization, managers often accept the way a system operates.
In HRM, managers are involved in planning, organizing, staffing, monitoring, developing, and assessing business operations (Hickman, 1990). As the overall in management, managers have to be problem solvers, decision makers, and cheerleaders. The mentioned roles and responsibilities require that a manager have to possess varied skills, from technical, human to conceptual skills, in order to handle different situations within the management.
A leader has the responsibility to direct, coach, support, and delegate tasks to employees. In delegating tasks, leaders give employees opportunities to increase their skill base, as well as carry out fairness in rating of employees in order to win their commitments unconditionally.
Leaders believe in collective responsibility as away of accomplishing goals and objectives of an organization (Gilley, 2005). Since leaders have to be accountable to almost all final decisions and their impacts, they have to ensure that everyone comprehends clearly their duties. Clearly, it is the role of a leader to inform and educate his/her followers on what they should do.
Given that the entire concepts involved in leadership entail negotiation and guidance, a good leader have to be non-political in assigning and explaining the roles and responsibilities of the subordinates, as the move makes the process objective.
After delegating activities and coaching employees, leaders should be confident that the staff would be capable of meeting their targets, and even be ready to give advice to those who come back during the process.
In role clarification, leaders have to ensure that job descriptions do not have overlap of responsibilities (Leadership & management, 2004). In addition, good leaders have to be ready to listen to views of employees or staffs in order to avoid wrong circumstances that may arise due to wrong delegation of responsibilities to a group that lacks the required skills.
A manager can be good if he/she leads from the front by acting as an example and facilitating activities based on the background of an organization. Besides, a good manager has to show employees that h/she values their work at all time. He/she must set out clear goals that employees will comprehend easily, thus assisting in meeting the objectives of an organization. The mentioned qualities will make both a leader and a manager competent in handling interests of all stakeholders in a firm.
References
Gilley, A. M. (2005). The manager as change leader. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers.
Hickman, C. R. (1990). Mind of a manager, soul of a leader. New York: Wiley. Leadership & management. Leeds: Topss England.
Leadership is not the same as Management. (2011). Skills You Need. Web.
What is the Difference Between Management and Leadership?. (n.d.). Management RSS. Web.