LEADERSHIP VERSUS MANAGEMENT
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
—Peter F. Drucker
Although sometimes used synonymously, leadership and management can be quite different. Leaders may be managers, but not all managers are leaders. So just what are the differences?
While managers tend to have their eyes on the bottom line, leaders are more often looking toward the horizon, trying to find new opportunities for growth and development. A manager is usually satisfied with the status quo, whereas the leader is often challenging it.
Leadership often involves reinventing the job; strong leaders create their role in an organization or in the world system. Managers are often responsible for executing the task at hand, not thinking of future goals. Managers are responsible for maintaining, but leaders look to innovate. Managers may involve employees in their activities, but often on a “need to know” basis. Leaders, in contrast, work to inspire those around them by trying to help others gain personal growth and development from their activities and by turning weaknesses into strengths.
Companies that have “leader-managers” throughout the corporate hierarchy are the most successful.
ROLES OF MANAGERS
Management is often expressed as the process of achieving an organization’s objectives through guiding development, maintenance, and allocating resources. The primary roles of managers are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
Planning
The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.
—Theodore M. Hesburgh
Planning is the process of determining a course of action for future conditions and events with the goal of achieving the company’s objectives. Effective planning is necessary for any business or organization that wants to avoid costly mistakes. There are four different types of planning that are associated with management: strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency planning.
Strategic planning involves creating long-range goals and determining the resources required for achieving these goals. Strategic planning is the most far-reaching level of planning and involves plans with time frames from one to five years. Essential to the notion of strategic planning is that it involves an assessment and consideration of the organization’s external environment, and that the organization is adaptive to these outside, noncontrollable variables, adjusting and possibly redirecting its strategy to account for this changing environment.
Tactical planning denotes the implementation of the activities defined by the strategic plans. Generally, tactical planning involves shorter-range plans with time frames of less than one year.
Operational planning involves the creation of specific methods, standards, and procedures for different functional areas of an organization. In addition, the organization chooses specific work targets and assigns employees to teams to carry out plans.
Contingency planning involves the creation of alternative courses of action for unusual or crisis situations. In today’s society, companies are placing greater importance on contingency planning in order to respond to crisis situations. For example, realizing the impact of terrorism on businesses in the wake of September 11, 2001, many companies have developed contingency plans to respond to potential terrorism events.
Organizing
This management role involves blending human and capital resources in a formal structure. The manager will divide and classify work by determining which specific tasks need to be carried out in order to accomplish a set of objectives.
Leading
Managers also have the role of leading or directing employees and plans. Some managers may be more successful at leadership than others. The goal of leading is to guide and motivate employees in order to accomplish organizational objectives. This role involves explaining procedures, issuing directives, and ensuring that any mistakes are corrected.
Controlling
Controlling allows a manager to measure how closely an organization is adhering to its set goals. It is also a process that provides feedback for future planning.
1. Setting performance standards. A company needs to set the standards by which performance will be measured. In a sales organization it may be sales growth or quarterly sales figures. Perhaps the manager will set the dollar amount for sales that are to be made that quarter.
2. Measuring performance. Using the previous example, measuring performance for sales will require tallying up the number of sales made during the quarter.
3. Comparing actual performance to the set performance standards. Now the difference between the set performance sales and the dollar amount of actual sales made during the quarter must be determined.
4. Taking the necessary corrective action steps. If the sales were much below the set level, it is important to analyze what went wrong and try to correct it.
5. Using information from the process to set future performance standards.
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
—Peter F. Drucker
Although sometimes used synonymously, leadership and management can be quite different. Leaders may be managers, but not all managers are leaders. So just what are the differences?
While managers tend to have their eyes on the bottom line, leaders are more often looking toward the horizon, trying to find new opportunities for growth and development. A manager is usually satisfied with the status quo, whereas the leader is often challenging it.
Leadership often involves reinventing the job; strong leaders create their role in an organization or in the world system. Managers are often responsible for executing the task at hand, not thinking of future goals. Managers are responsible for maintaining, but leaders look to innovate. Managers may involve employees in their activities, but often on a “need to know” basis. Leaders, in contrast, work to inspire those around them by trying to help others gain personal growth and development from their activities and by turning weaknesses into strengths.
Companies that have “leader-managers” throughout the corporate hierarchy are the most successful.
ROLES OF MANAGERS
Management is often expressed as the process of achieving an organization’s objectives through guiding development, maintenance, and allocating resources. The primary roles of managers are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
Planning
The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.
—Theodore M. Hesburgh
Planning is the process of determining a course of action for future conditions and events with the goal of achieving the company’s objectives. Effective planning is necessary for any business or organization that wants to avoid costly mistakes. There are four different types of planning that are associated with management: strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency planning.
Strategic planning involves creating long-range goals and determining the resources required for achieving these goals. Strategic planning is the most far-reaching level of planning and involves plans with time frames from one to five years. Essential to the notion of strategic planning is that it involves an assessment and consideration of the organization’s external environment, and that the organization is adaptive to these outside, noncontrollable variables, adjusting and possibly redirecting its strategy to account for this changing environment.
Tactical planning denotes the implementation of the activities defined by the strategic plans. Generally, tactical planning involves shorter-range plans with time frames of less than one year.
Operational planning involves the creation of specific methods, standards, and procedures for different functional areas of an organization. In addition, the organization chooses specific work targets and assigns employees to teams to carry out plans.
Contingency planning involves the creation of alternative courses of action for unusual or crisis situations. In today’s society, companies are placing greater importance on contingency planning in order to respond to crisis situations. For example, realizing the impact of terrorism on businesses in the wake of September 11, 2001, many companies have developed contingency plans to respond to potential terrorism events.
Organizing
This management role involves blending human and capital resources in a formal structure. The manager will divide and classify work by determining which specific tasks need to be carried out in order to accomplish a set of objectives.
Leading
Managers also have the role of leading or directing employees and plans. Some managers may be more successful at leadership than others. The goal of leading is to guide and motivate employees in order to accomplish organizational objectives. This role involves explaining procedures, issuing directives, and ensuring that any mistakes are corrected.
Controlling
Controlling allows a manager to measure how closely an organization is adhering to its set goals. It is also a process that provides feedback for future planning.
1. Setting performance standards. A company needs to set the standards by which performance will be measured. In a sales organization it may be sales growth or quarterly sales figures. Perhaps the manager will set the dollar amount for sales that are to be made that quarter.
2. Measuring performance. Using the previous example, measuring performance for sales will require tallying up the number of sales made during the quarter.
3. Comparing actual performance to the set performance standards. Now the difference between the set performance sales and the dollar amount of actual sales made during the quarter must be determined.
4. Taking the necessary corrective action steps. If the sales were much below the set level, it is important to analyze what went wrong and try to correct it.
5. Using information from the process to set future performance standards.
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