Leaders Are Born, Managers Are Made

Subject: Managerial Duties
Pages: 3
Words: 685
Reading time:
3 min
Study level: College

Introduction

Leadership and management are the most commonly used words in the business world. Thus, there is need to differentiate between the two because managers are leaders but they do not always behave in this particular way.

Leadership

Leadership is the process of working with others to obtain certain objectives. A leader is a person who provides leadership (Morden, 2004). Leaders lead through inspiring others and the followers go after them without questioning. These people are target-oriented and they are born with leadership skills. Leaders have the quality of leadership modeled throughout their life, they gain additional leadership skills through training, and they have disciplined to become great leaders ( Pace, 2006).

To lead is to influence and guide others, and effective leaders have good imagination, they are resourceful and innovators. Leaders have their own attitude, they make high risk decisions and they have fresh approaches to traditional problems.

Management

On the other hand, a manager is a person who manages and directs activities of a team, monitors their work and takes corrective measures. Managers get the desired results through people.

Management is a manner of representing or conducting a responsibility; managers are characterized by the way they perform their responsibility, such as: they have a functional and passive manner of doing their job, they take moderate risks, they avoid solitary work, they encourage team work in their groups and the acceptance of their lives ( Parsons, 2008).

Managers versus Leaders

We have many managers in the corporate world but few of them can be named good leaders. By nature, everyone is a manager but not everyone can make a good manager (Pace, 2006).

The following differences between leaders and managers show that leadership is an in-born thing while manager is gained one

Differences between leaders and managers
Leaders Managers
They are born. They are made
They have willing followers. They get their results through other people.
They use the power of influence to have things done. They must have authority to have things done. They acquire authority from the organizational structure.
A leader earns the right to lead from the followers. The right of a manager to manage comes from ownership.
A leader asks and there is no need in coercion to have things done. A manager tells and sometimes he or she may coercion to have things done
A leader has personal power. A manager has position power.
A leader intends to make changes. A manager aims at producing goods and services.
A leader inspires his followers through vision, mission, objectives, and schedules. A manager coordinates the activities of others such as planning, controlling, staffing, and organizing.
The followers really feel that they are working with a leader. People feel they are working for the manager.

Most managers get work done through the above characteristics. A manager must have the power and right to have the work done. A leader cannot force any one to follow them and they cannot impose a vision on anyone. Followers can walk away and follow another leader. There are informal leaders in organization without position power authority or title but they usually influence and have power over their followers(Pace, 2006).

Conclusion

For a long time, there leadership can be classified to: authoritarian leaders, democratic leaders, laissez-fare and consultative leaders. The Path Goal Theory states that the behavior of most of the corporate leaders is dictated by the subordinates satisfaction and motivation in the work they do. The normative decision model states that leaders take a position of evaluate the type of decision to make while situational leaders adapt to the style where their followers can readily follow and perform the required tasks (Morden, 2004).

References

Morden, T. (2004). Principles of Management. New York: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Pace, J. (2006). Professional Development Series Book 1 The Workplace: Today and Tomorrow. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Pace, J. (2006). Professional Development Series Book 2 The Workplace: Interpersonal Strengths and Leadership. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Pace, J. (2006). The workplace: Personal skills for success. The Professional Development Series:. Boston: McGraw Hill.

Parsons, C. (2008). Business Administration. Chicago: Gibb Press.