Leadership
Leadership and Management are two different shores. Leadership is the action of leading a group towards a common goal. Leaders have three common characteristics:
- They inspire others to share their vision.
- They inspire others to act on that vision.
- They encourage others and help them overcome obstacles in the pursuit of that vision.
Leadership Skills:
- Communication: The ability to transmit information and listen actively.
- Motivation: Desiring people to do what you need them to do.
- Delegation: Knowing that you cannot do everything and trusting others will help you to complete the assigned tasks.
- Positivity: Keeping a positive attitude, regardless of the situation, helps with morale.
- Trustworthiness: People do not go to listen to you or do what you ask if you do not instill a sense of trust in the first place.
- Creativity: There will always be problems that cannot be solved easily; you must think creatively and be open to taking chances. Employ different thinking to find unique solutions.
- Response: Leadership does not happen in a vacuum. Listen to your team, stakeholders, mentors, mentees etc. and take their opinions seriously.
Leadership Types:
- Situational Leadership:
- The right person in the right time at the right moment.
- Recognize the time and circumstances.
- Willingness and ability to assume the responsibility, listen and to take the responsibility to help the group to achieve goals.
- Transitional Leadership:
- The right time but wrong circumstances.
- It may occur when leadership requires at a certain moment, but the person who is the leader may not be capable of delivering the leadership.
- Transitional leaders may be missing all the right stuff, be fearing the risk.
- Hierarchical Leadership:
- The right circumstances but wrong time.
- Performs the leadership role as it is their turn whether they want the role or not.
Management
It is the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. But the emphasis is on things rather than people.
Managers are people who plan, organize and coordinate. They are organized and are always assuring their process to ensure that they are proceeding according to plan. If not, they return to their baseline assessment.
Management Skills:
- Interpersonal skills: While managers do not deal specifically with people, they should still interface with them.
- Communication: Being able to manage is being able to communicate what you need to do.
- Motivation: The same is true for motivating people to follow your management lead.
- Organization: All the things must be organized in an organization.
- Delegation: No person can manage everything by themselves, and if they try, they are going to fail. Therefore, share responsibilities and tasks with others.
- Forward Planning: A manager is a planner who looks to the future and how to position himself for it today.
- Strategic thinking: Part of that planning is strategically thinking about aligning the project, the organization, and how to move them forward.
Difference between Leadership and Management
| S.No. | Management | Leadership |
| 1. | Managers give directions | Leaders ask questions |
| 2. | Focuses on present | Looks towards future |
| 3. | Managers use an authoritarian style | Leaders have a motivational style |
| 4. | Managers tell people what to do | Leaders show people what to do |
| 5. | Focuses on procedure | Engages on vision |
| 6. | Managers react to change | Leaders create change |
| 7. | Managers try to be heroes | Leaders make heroes of everyone around them |
| 8. | Managers exercise power over people | Leaders develop power with people |
Similarities between Leadership and Management
Management and leadership are often considered the same in many organizations. Although both share a part of the same traits, they differ in the sense that while all leaders are managers, not all managers are leaders. Managing and leading are two complementary qualities that are interconnected. It is impossible to remove one from the other. Leaders inspire and motivate, while managers plan, organize, and coordinate.