Essay Sample on Leadership and Management Behaviors

Introduction

In most cases, management and leadership are often mistaken as the same thing though, in essence, they have differences. My mom, Mrs Jackson, holds a management position in her organization while my uncle, Mr Job, is a leader. From observing both Mr Job and Mrs Jackson, I have realized that management involves administering and ensuring that the daily tasks in the organization are in order. But leadership is more of getting people to comprehend and believe in the vision the leader sets for the organization and to strive to accomplish such goals (Bargau, 2015). For any organization to be successful, the executives should be both active managers and leaders to get their workers on board with working towards achieving the target of the organization. This paper will concentrate on elucidating different behaviours and the effectiveness of individuals involved in management and those in leadership.

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Through observing Mr Job, it is clear that executives with leadership behaviours exhibit different features compared to executives with managerial behaviours. Firstly, leaders have integrity and honesty. This aspect ensures that the people following the leaders believe in the course that their leaders take on them. Secondly, leaders always have a vision. A vision ensures that the leaders know where they are currently, where they want to be in the future and also engaging their teams in preparing a plan for the future (Bargau, 2015). In addition, leaders exhibit inspirational features. In this case, leaders can motivate their followers to be the best in their tasks.

Furthermore, leaders inspire their followers by ensuring they understand their role in the team. Leadership is all about thinking outside the box at all times which makes enables leaders to be able to challenge the status quo. Leadership entails excellent communication skills. Leaders ensure that their followers are well informed about the goals to be achieved, their roles and inform them of the challenges they might encounter in the course of achieving their goals.

On the other hand, through Mrs Jackson, I have realized that executives who are managers in nature exhibit the following behaviours. Firstly, managers can maintain their vision. In this case, they take the vision and turn it into a suitable roadmap that the team members can use to achieve their goals. Secondly, managers direct the work efforts that the team members bring forward and that are done in their everyday operations (Bargau, 2015). Also, managers review the resources required by their workers and also anticipate all that the workers may need in the course of their work. Likewise, managers process administration in their organizations where they institute work rules, standards, and operating procedures.

In matters of effectiveness, Mr Job and Mrs Jackson always try their best to ensure that they uphold the best behaviours and features in their roles. Mrs Jackson generates excellent management persona by ensuring fair and effective evaluation of her employees. She ensures that she evaluates her employee frequently which makes her more conversational in discussing performance with the workers. Through her commitment to performance evaluation, she has ensured that the best employees retain their jobs in the organization. Her effectiveness is also evident in her efforts to offer feedback to employees openly in matters of performance evaluation for them to improve.

Likewise, Mr Job has exhibited effectiveness in his leadership role as he is always striving to ensure he expresses meaningful values to his followers. When the values of the organization are clear and sincere, good business culture is built. As a result, the values and culture are appreciated when the customers are satisfied through the commitment of the organization (Edward, Schedlitzki, Turnbull & Gill, 2015). Mr Jackson ensures that his team members accept the values of the organization and embrace them to enhance their performance in their tasks. He has ensured vivid communication of the values of the organization; hence the team members become engaged more in their roles.

From what I have observed, I would aspire to be a leader. My aspiration is because leaders are mainly the innovators of new things and oriented towards the goals and visions of the organization, unlike managers who stick to policy and only carry out the ideas of the leaders. Also, leaders encourage their employees to think big and see the big picture, unlike managers who always have clear guidelines on different aspects of their organizations. Besides, leaders can challenge the status quo to prevent stagnation of their organization while managers always maintain the status quo.

Several strategies could help in enhancing my leadership or management behaviours. Firstly, defining my vision and broadcasting it could be useful. In this case, I can ensure a clear vision that is well understood by the employees, the purpose of the company and also the impacts I want the organization to have on the customers and the community. Secondly, maintaining good communication could be of significance. I can ensure that the team members are well and often informed about the goals of the organization. Also, ensuring the power of gratitude ion the organization can enhance my leadership and management behaviours. Everyone wants an appreciation for a job well done. When employees are appreciated for handling and completing their tasks well, they get inspired whereby they even get to work harder to achieve the goals of the organization (Edward, Schedlitzki, Turnbull & Gill, 2015). All the three strategies will be beneficial to my professional life as they will enable me to become a good team player in the workplace and become the best leader or manager as I work harder.

Conclusion

From my observation, there is a big distinction between management and leadership. However, most organizations consider having both managers and leaders as a key step towards enhancing effectiveness. Managers ensure all tasks are done on time while the leaders ensure the employees comprehend and believe in the visions of the organization. Therefore, without the two of them together an organization cannot succeed.

References

Bargau, M. (2015). Leadership versus management. Romanian Economic and Business Review, 10(2), 197-204.

Edwards, G., Schedlitzki, D., Turnbull, S., & Gill, R. (2015). Exploring power assumptions in the leadership and management debate. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 36(3), 328-343.