leaders and Managers

1 like

Please login to like this article.

Manager and Leader

Managers may not be leaders but leaders have to be managers. Managers have subordinates .They are paid to get things done, so they too are subordinates. Leaders have followers, they don?t have subordinates. But leaders in organizational setting do have subordinates only because they are managers as well.
Managers ensure process flows, structural clarity, sustained excellence, fairness and equality; they are to be conduits of ideas /innovation through out the organization.
Leaders lead without the formal authoritarian control, to lead means to have followers and following is a voluntary act.
Managers tend to be relatively risk free, leaders tend to be risk seeking, managers manage work, leaders lead people.

Professor Amin Rajan in one of his articles in Professional Manager says, like love, leadership is hard to define. Leadership and love, though cannot be defined, can certainly be described, can be observed? Feeling of love throws up some signals that indicate that love is in the air likewise some behavior patterns in an individual give cue to the leadership traits he has.
Love is universal but intensely personal. Likewise leadership is universal and it is personal as well. Love energizes the universe so does leadership. From this energy flows action. Leadership encompasses the whole universe in its fold; Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela are the shining examples of this Universality, their footprints are indelible, eternal. Leadership derives energy from the love of the vision/ mission that he/she is set to realize. Mother Teresa is an example of this purity of love that kept her energized to keep going strongly/enthusiastically with the noble mission of serving the poor preaching LOVE ALL -HATE NONE to make this world hatred free. Similarly it was the love of the vision/mission to have their countries free from the shackles of slavery that energized Gandhi and Mandela. They had the reservoir of energy/passion that kept their people energized and motivated and mission achieved. How aptly the remark of Follet, ??there is energy, passion, unawakened life in us--those who call it forth are leaders?, fits in with these leaders
The excellence of leader is dependent on the followers.     Great leaders take their workers with them; a leader creates organization that can flourish in spite of them. He rises above his ego. He creates an environment where people are not afraid to fail.
As John C Maxwell has said   ?A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. ?

Leader ship is, therefore, about
   Guiding people to go where they have never been
   Inspiring them to produce exceptional results
   Creating an image of future (vision), to have vision is the very essence of leadership that inspires enthusiasm and commitment
   empathizing with the people and responding to their emotions as they cope with the journey
   Encouraging learning by experimentation
   Tolerating ambiguity and mistakes
   Being available to people
   Taking the work seriously and enthusiastically but taking the EGO lightly
   Being humble. Leaders aren?t self-promoting or engaged in building a personal fiefdom
   Having a sense of responsibility. Leaders are willing to bear the ultimate responsibility for their undertakings. They don?t point the finger of blame when things go awry. They don?t take all the credit. They give credit to others and refuse it for themselves. They do not sustain themselves in reflected glory. Leaders have integrity, the strength of character that restrains them from falling prey to temptations to self glorification and self perpetuation
   Being passion- igniter not extinguisher and competence -appreciator not castrators?
)