by Marcus Flakes

Created on: November 08, 2009

Managers and Leaders are essential to the success of a business and the development of subordinates. Management and leadership are integrated to get a job done and boost morale. The combination of leadership and management is rare in today's workforce. In the book, The Heart of a Leader, the author Kenneth Blanchard, discussed key elements in how to be an effective leader. In the book, The Human Side of Enterprise, the author, Douglas McGregor described behavioral theories and the idea of ruling by controlling. Managers and leaders have similarities from an operational aspect, but the difference in their agendas is much greater.

After reading the two authors' philosophical viewpoints, management played a significant role in business. What is a manager? A manager is a person tasked with overseeing one or more employees or departments to ensure these employees or departments carry out assigned duties as required. However, the word "leadership" seems to be even more significant. What is a leader? A leader is a person who guides others toward a common goal, showing the way by example, and creating an environment in which other team members feel actively involved in the entire process. To simplify their competencies, managers produce order and consistency whereas, leaders produce change and movement.

Managers and leaders have commonality, because they share the same responsibilities in supervising others to achieve a desired outcome. Whether it is establishing detailed plans and schedules or building resilience to enhance systemic effectiveness. Therefore, management and leadership are beneficial in ensuring success in establishing a culture of professionalism and excellence and achieving goals and objectives. These authors focus on mastering the concepts of boosting staff's morale and quality assurance.

Is there really a difference between leadership and management? Primarily, the difference in leaders and managers is that management focuses on the generation of production through others. In essence, managers that treat their staff with dignity and respect and empower them through coaching, modeling and supportive guidance will achieve the desired outcome. However, managers that utilize the obedience model and focus on compliance and conformity will stifle team members' creativity and innovative ideas. Leadership is more concerned with communicating the vision and developing a shared culture and set of core values that can lead to the desired future state.

From a big picture perspective, it would be necessary to evaluate the expectations of managers and leaders. Since being a good leader is pertinent to effective management, organizations utilize both concepts for staff's growth and development and organizational strategic planning. Ultimately, the two components of good business practice is the result of effective systems and employees' ongoing growth and development. Without effective management and leadership qualities, a business will not maximize profit and will experience staffing issues; leading to a dysfunctional organizational system. In conclusion, the motto, "BE-KNOW-DO" which means who you must be, know what must be done, and do what must be done depicts the correlation and interrelation of effective management and leadership.

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