Management Can Managers be leaders
Are Managers Leaders? Introduction The business world contains an abundance of competent, capable, hardworking, committed managers, but only a handful of them would be regarded as successful leaders. ... Managers are people who do things right, and leaders are people who do the right thing. ... (Bennis & Nanus, 1985) Leadership is different from management. It is not necessarily better than management, nor a replacement for it. Rather, leadership and management are two distinctive and complementary systems of action. ... 1990) Is leadership, then, a quality occurring naturally in all managers once they assume the managerial role, or is it a skill which has to be learned? Are leaders born, or are they made? In the following discussion I will attempt to answer some of these questions by elaborating on the concepts of management and leadership, their differences, and the qualities and responsibilities inherent in each. ... (Lorsch et al 1978) A managers work can be described in terms of roles or patterns of behaviour. ... The managers interpersonal roles have as their prime purpose the development of relationships between the manager and other people. ... The managers informational roles include those of information monitor, disseminator and spokesperson, while his or her decisional roles of entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator and negotiator lead to organisational action. ... et al 1978) If leadership is just one of the many roles which a manager must play, why is it so hard, then, for managers to create the kind of teams, departments and companies that they want? Managers know what an ideal organisation is, but few of them live and work in this ideal realm. ... The ability to resolve dilemmas and build the kind of organisation they want is what separates leaders from capable, dependable managers. ... Many people believe that leadership is essentially a matter of charisma, a "rare, elusive, transforming characteristic that sets leaders apart and impels others to follow them. ... The vast majority of business leaders have succeeded not through charisma, but through experience, judgement, boldness, tenacity and hard work.