Character Formation with Leadership, Decision Making, Management and Administration

MODULE 1
In this module, you are going to learn about leadership. You’ll recognize the differences
between management and leadership, and you’ll discover some common traits that leaders
share. You’ll study several of the major theories of leadership and how to analyze leadership skill
in others. Ultimately, you’ll want to study these lessons with a thought toward your own
leadership development and how you might apply these lessons in both your career and personal
life.

Learning Outcome:

1. Define leadership and Management

2. Understand the differences between leadership with Management roles.
3. Evaluate the role of leader and manager in the organization
4. Identify leadership styles
5. Identify contemporary leadership roles
6. Discuss common issues leaders must face
7. Identify challenges to the concept of leadership

Introduction to Leadership

What you’ll learn to do: differentiate between leadership and management

What is the difference between “management” and “leadership”? Sometimes the terms
are used almost interchangeably, but there is an important difference between them.
Management includes various aspects, one of which is the leadership function. Learning to
distinguish between the two can help individuals evaluate and develop their leadership skills.

We can all recognize a good leader when we see one, but defining what qualities and
practices a good leader has can be difficult. In fact, the one thing that researchers seem to agree
on regarding leadership is that they don’t always agree.

Are great leader defined by their accomplishments? Are leaders defined by the appraisal
of their followers? Is nature or nurture the more important factor in determining leadership? Can

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Character Formation with Leadership, Decision Making, Management and Administration

leadership be learned, or is there a magical combination of trait, behavior and situation that
allows leaders to rise to the occasion? Historically, in western civilization, we’ve struggled to
answer these questions, and in the next few sections we’ll give you enough information that you
can start contemplating these issues along with us.

Leadership can be defined as one’s ability to influence and motivate others to bring the
best out in them. It focuses on encouraging individuals to add more to the overall effectiveness
of an organization.

Leadership is often defined as a process wherein an individual, influences and encourages

others to achieve the organizational objectives and directs the organization so that it becomes
more coherent and cohesive to work.

Moreover, a person who can bring out the change is the one who possesses the ability to
be a leader. A good leader is the one who always looks out after others before himself and is
proactive. Proactive refers to a leader’s tendency of being three steps ahead of others, thinking
of all the possibilities of a scenario.

Leadership is all about developing people, in turn helping them to reach their maximum
potential. In the simplest of terms, Leadership is an art of motivating the people to help achieve
a common goal.

Talking of few Leadership qualities an effective leader should possess are: –

• Commitment towards the tasks and duties allocated

• Ability to communicate well, taking the ownership of the tasks;
• Honesty and Integrity,
• Ability to take the right decisions and that too at the right time;
• Creativity and Innovation and lastly but the most important one the ability to inspire
others.

In the words of Mary Parker Follet “Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power but by the
capacity to increase the sense of power among those led,” (Collins S, 2019).

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Character Formation with Leadership, Decision Making, Management and Administration

Leadership:

According to the idea of transformational leadership, an effective leader is a person who

does the following:

1. Creates an inspiring vision of the future.

2. Motivates and inspires people to engage with that vision.
3. Manages delivery of the vision.
4. Coaches and builds a team, so that it is more effective at achieving the vision.
(MINDTOOLS, n.d.)

As people have pursued an understanding of what makes an effective leader, their attention
has often moved to the key personal traits those leaders exhibit. The idea is that identifying those
common traits will help businesses identify effective leaders and help individuals know how to
become better leaders. What are some of those common traits?

Research on traits has many critics. One example that follows will illustrate that someone
perceived as a leader may not be the most effective leader in the long run. Nevertheless, some
companies will use traits or personality in making hiring or promotion decisions.

LEADERSHIP VS MANAGEMENT

What you’ll learn to do: Describe the history, context and utility of the distinction between
leadership and management

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Analyze the difference between leaders and managers

• Discuss the hybrid role of leader-managers in contemporary organizations

The ideas of leadership and management were developed independently and under vastly
different circumstances. The concept of the “great man” was the birth of the idea of leadership,
celebrating the qualities and accomplishments of men who changed the world. The idea of

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Character Formation with Leadership, Decision Making, Management and Administration

“management,” which included the study of employee tasks to determine which methods of
performance were most productive and profitable, came from a very different, more pedestrian
place. Management was a means to an end. Leadership was almost godlike.

Today, there’s less of a divide between “leader” and “manager.” So much so, that we
contemplate and argue the differences between the two functions.

Leader or Manager?

We’ve used the word “leader” and we’ve used the word “manager.” You may think
they’re interchangeable, but they aren’t. They are different.

Abraham Zaleznik, Harvard Business School Professor Emeritus, was the first to write
about the differences between leaders and managers. His article, “Managers and Leaders: Are
They Different?” challenged the traditional view of management, which centered on
organizational structure and processes.[1] Organizations, at the time, developed managers with a
focus on process and control. Zaleznik argued that these same organizations were missing the
opportunity to develop leaders by concentrating on this, because they were really two different
types of people.

In Zaleznik’s view, both leaders and managers contribute to the organization. Leaders
contribute by advocating change and new approaches, and do so by gaining the commitment of
employees. Managers contribute by advocating stability and the status quo, exercising authority,
carrying out responsibility and determining how work will get accomplished.

John Kotter, current Harvard Business School Professor Emeritus, had some additional
opinions on the differences between leadership and management. In 1990, Kotter proposed that
leadership and management were two distinct, yet complementary systems of action in
organizations. Specifically, leadership is about coping with change, and management is about
coping with complexity.

Kotter’s view of the leadership process involves:

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Character Formation with Leadership, Decision Making, Management and Administration

• Developing a vision for the organization

• Aligning people with that vision through communication

• Motivating people to action through empowerment and basic needs fulfillment

Conversely, Kotter’s view of the management process involves:

• Planning and budgeting

• Organizing and staffing

• Controlling and problem solving

We understand now that there’s a difference between the role of leader and the role of
manager in an organization, and that organizations need both to function well. Leaders do
provide the vision and get buy-in from employees to believe in it and execute on it. Managers
provide instruction and create conformity. Having this understanding allows us to identify
organizational needs around both functions, so we can shift gears to provide it.

Furthermore, we understand that people can be leaders and managers all at once. Let’s take
a look at this hybrid leader-manager role.

Management and Manager

Management includes the activities of setting the strategy of an organization and

coordinating the efforts of its employees (or of volunteers) to accomplish its objectives through
the application of available resources, such as financial, natural, technological, and human
resources.

According to Mary Parker Follet “Management is defined as the art of getting things done
through people.”

Management can be defined as a social process which includes the effective and
appropriate planning for different operations in an organization for the fulfillment of
organizational objectives.

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Character Formation with Leadership, Decision Making, Management and Administration

All the aforesaid management functions help an organization achieve its objectives. These
five functions form a part of a body of practices and theories which help an individual to be a
successful manager.

Understanding the difference between Leadership and Management

Management and leadership skills are quite often regarded as one and the same to many
businesses. The two activities are not synonymous with each other.

Highlighting the difference between the two terms Leaders have people follow them
whereas Managers have people work for them.

A manager emphasizes on planning and coordinating the different tasks to be performed

with an organization whereas Leader focuses on inspiring and motivating people.

Management process can potentially aim at providing Leadership whereas the different
leadership activities contribute at managing. There exists a profound difference between
management and leadership and both play a vital role in an organization.

WHO IS A LEADER? WHO IS A MANAGER?

What is the ideal way to develop leadership? Every society provides its own answer to
this question, and each, in groping for answers, defines its deepest concerns about the purposes,
distributions, and uses of power. Business has contributed its answer to the leadership question
by evolving a new breed called the manager. Simultaneously, business has established a new
power ethic that favors collective over individual leadership, the cult of the group over that of
personality. While ensuring the competence, control, and the balance of power among groups
with the potential for rivalry, managerial leadership unfortunately does not necessarily ensure
imagination, creativity, or ethical behavior in guiding the destinies of corporate enterprises.

Leadership inevitably requires using power to influence the thoughts and actions of other
people. Power in the hands of an individual entails human risks: first, the risk of equating power

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Character Formation with Leadership, Decision Making, Management and Administration

with the ability to get immediate results; second, the risk of ignoring the many different ways
people can legitimately accumulate power; and third, the risk of losing self-control in the desire
for power. The need to hedge these risks accounts in part for the development of collective
leadership and the managerial ethic. Consequently, an inherent conservatism dominates the
culture of large organizations. In The Second American Revolution, John D. Rockefeller III
describes the conservatism of organizations:

“An organization is a system, with a logic of its own, and all the weight of tradition and
inertia. The deck is stacked in favor of the tried and proven way of doing things and against the
taking of risks and striking out in new directions.”1

Out of this conservatism and inertia, organizations provide succession to power through
the development of managers rather than individual leaders. Ironically, this ethic fosters a
bureaucratic culture in business, supposedly the last bastion protecting us from the
encroachments and controls of bureaucracy in government and education.

5 Ways to be a Leader, Not a Manager

In an article about leadership qualities, titled 5 Ways to be a Leader, Not a Manager, Jennifer Hill
is quoted as stating that a leader has five unique qualities, which are;

1. Listen more and speak less.

2. Consensus is good but… direction and decisiveness create action.
3. Anyone can identify a problem. A leader is part of the solution.
4. Apologize publicly and gloat privately.
5. Give the hard message.

Key Differences Between Leader and Manager

7 Things Great Leaders Always Do (but Mere Managers Always Fear)

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Character Formation with Leadership, Decision Making, Management and Administration

In an article on Inc.com, Bill Murphy Jr outlines seven differences that he sees between leaders
and managers. They are;

1. A great leader connects daily work with great goals. A mere manager focuses only on the
short-term.
2. A great leader thinks of people as people. A mere manager sees only titles or
organizational charts.
3. A great leader wants to earn respect. A mere manager wants to be liked.
4. A real leader is thrilled when team members achieve great things. A mere manager is
threatened.
5. A great leader empowers people with honesty and transparency. A mere manager parcels
out information as if it costs him personally.
6. A great leader understands that if the team falls short, he is responsible. A mere manager
blames the team.
7. A great leader cares mainly about results. A mere manager is more concerned with
process.
8. No matter what personality elements you feel make the difference between a leader and
a manager, we tend to all strive towards becoming a leader.

9. A leader possesses the quality of foresightedness while a manager has the intelligence

10. A leader sets directions, but a manager plans details.

11. A manager takes decision while a leader facilitates it.

12. A leader and the manager is that a leader has followers while the manager has the
employees.

13. A manager avoids conflicts. On the contrary, a leader uses conflicts as an asset.

14. The manager uses transactional leadership style. As against this, transformational
leadership style is used by the leader.

15. Leaders promote change, but Managers react to the change.

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Character Formation with Leadership, Decision Making, Management and Administration

16. A leader aligns people, while a manager organizes people.

17. A leader strives for doing the right things. Conversely, the manager strives for doing the
right things.

18. The leader focuses on people while a manager focuses on the Process and Procedure.

19. A leader aims at the growth and development of his teammates while a manager aims at
accomplishing the end results.

As you can see form the examples we have quoted above, there are plenty of ways of looking
at the difference between a leader and manager. No matter how you consider it, there are a few
personality traits that I see great leaders display in their work and interactions;

1. Leaders give freely

2. Leaders are open and transparent
3. Leaders encourage others to do better
4. Leaders take responsibility
5. Leaders never give up

What Makes an Effective Leader?

As people have pursued an understanding of what makes an effective leader, their

attention has often moved to the key personal traits those leaders exhibit. The idea is that
identifying those common traits will help businesses identify effective leaders and help
individuals know how to become better leaders. What are some of those common traits?

Research on traits has many critics. One example that follows will illustrate that someone
perceived as a leader may not be the most effective leader in the long run.

Key characteristics between leader and manager

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Character Formation with Leadership, Decision Making, Management and Administration

Honesty & Integrity: are crucial to get your people to believe you and buy in to the journey you
are taking them on

Vision: know where you are, where you want to go and enroll your team in charting a path for
the future

Inspiration: inspire your team to be all they can by making sure they understand their role in the
bigger picture

Ability to Challenge: do not be afraid to challenge the status quo, do things differently and have
the courage to think outside the box

Communication Skills: keep your team informed of the journey, where you are, where you are
heading and share any roadblocks you may encounter along the way.

Concluding Paragraph

Well, Management is all about “ME” whereas Leadership is all about “YOU”. When I talk
of the Management styles it simply refers to the inclusion of people to help in achieving the
objectives of an organization. This means to involve people in accomplishing the objectives.

On the other hand, Leadership styles are all about the application of the different
methods to help you achieve your objective.

Therefore, a successful organization is the one which requires the adequate and
appropriate combination of both Management and Leadership. Thus a successful business owner
needs to be both a strong leader and manager to help their teamwork towards the vision of an
organization.

In this module, we considered all the things that a leader could be made of—the
personality traits, the behaviors, and the occasions on which they are called to rise—and tried to
determine how inspiring leadership happens. Are leaders born or are they made?

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Character Formation with Leadership, Decision Making, Management and Administration

The answer lies in between, in a perfect storm of trait, behavior, situation, followers and
style. Organizations need both leaders and managers, and the person that holds one title will be
called upon to adapt to the other. These leader-managers should be found at every level of the
organization, from the senior team all the way down to the front line employee. The organization
of tomorrow needs people who do things right and do the right things.

ASSESSMENT TASK:

1. Explain the five ways to be a leader.

2. Choose six (6) key differences between a leader and a manager and discuss each
differences by giving an example.

REFERENCES:

MINDTOOLS. (n.d.). What is Leadership?. Emeral works. Retrieved from

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_41.htm

Collins S. (2019). Leadership and Management – An Introduction. Thrive Global. Retrieved from
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/leadership-and-management-an-introduction/

Bridges J. (2019). Leadership vs. Management, What’s the Difference?. Project Manager.
Retrieved from: https://www.projectmanager.com/training/leadership-vs-management

Bohoris G. & Vorria E. (n.d.). Leadership vs management. Lund University Campus Helsingborg.
Retrieved from: https://ep.liu.se/ecp/026/076/ecp0726076.pdf

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