What Leaders Really Do - Essay Sample

Introduction

Leadership is critical to every organization. Employees need a good leader to look up to, learn from, and flourish with. Every leader has his or her unique strategy to be able to work well with workers. Besides, leadership techniques and approaches vary due to individual challenges and external pressures. Leadership is different from management as each of them is a complementary system of action with its own characteristics and function activities. A manager can further develop elements of leadership and become more beneficial to the organization. Leadership and management should complement each other in spite of their different entities and differing roles in an interdependent organization. Many can play the functions of a leader, but the managers should help guide them and help them develop leadership skills.

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Kotter's "What Leaders Really Do" helps people to understand better the role of leaders as true leadership is an elusive quality that is too often confused with management. It deals with the challenges experienced in managerial work and the issues of leadership and the best way to respond to them. The book studies leadership and guides as well as inspires leaders at all levels to true leadership. With management and no proper leaders, an organization easily loses its way. It means that leadership and management may be different concepts in an organization, but are complementary whereby it is becoming difficult for an organization to function without the other. Hence, the main theme of Kotter's "What Leaders Really Do" is proper leadership which incorporates both management and leadership as embracing both can help an organization to prosper.

People often use the terms of management and leadership synonymously, but they differ widely from each other. According to Kotter (2001), managers endorse stability while leaders press for transformation. The confusion between these two terms is colossal bringing about a significant misunderstanding on how to put together a corporation and position it for success in this century. Both management and leadership have vital functions to play in an organization.

Management entails a set of processes that enable the smooth running of an organization with the aspects of planning, staffing, organizing, problem-solving and controlling. These processes keep an organization functioning and make it reach its target. Management helps a company to produce the products and services as it has promised on budget and of consistent quality (Kotter, 2001). Management is a challenging task, especially in big and complex organizations. Thus, management is crucial to any corporation, but it is not the same as leadership.

On the other hand, leadership is very different from management. It entails a set of processes that help organizations adapt to the significantly changing circumstances. Leadership is primarily a vision about empowerment and producing useful change as it defines the future of an organization and aligns its people with a concept while inspiring them to overcome the obstacles and make things happen (Kotter, 2001). Being a leader is about behavior and not about attributes. Being a great leader means good communication, motivation, and inspiration to others. Someone can be a great manager, but poor at leadership. But for an excellently run organization, management and leadership will exist alongside one another. Besides, in the fast-changing world, we are in, leadership is increasingly necessary no matter where people are in a hierarchy. Leadership is not only meant for the few people at the top of an organization but rather for anyone with the ability to lead no matter the position in a company.

Therefore, leadership and management differ significantly from each other, and one cannot replace the other since they serve dissimilar, yet essential functions. Organizations need excellent management. At the same time, they need splendid leadership. With outstanding management and great leadership, complex organizations can become reliable and efficient. Moreover, few organizations have sufficient leadership as many people talk about management when referring to leadership and try to work harder to manage. Such a case results in over-managed and under-led corporations which are highly vulnerable to this increasingly globalized world.

While management is all about planning and budgeting, leadership entails setting the direction. Leadership plots the course which an organization should take, but it does not generate the plan. Leaders help create the vision and strategies and leave the planning and budgeting for the managers. Planning and budgeting typically entail crafting specific goals and targets for the future and establishing detailed steps for the achievement of the desired objectives (Kotter, 2001). Additionally, the process of planning and budgeting also entails allocating the required resources to accomplish the desired targets. Alternatively, enabling change is the primary function of leadership. Setting a direction for change is of great significance in an organization as it entails more inductions and intuitions than planning and budgeting. Furthermore, establishing a path for change does not end up in detailed plans as it requires leaders to draw together some data and look for the patterns, linkages, and relationship and use it to develop a vision for the organization. Additionally, setting the direction involves crafting the necessary strategies that would foster the achievement of the concept.

Additionally, motivating people varies from controlling and problem-solving. Processes such as controlling activities and unraveling problems are mechanisms used by managers to enable people to complete their daily tasks efficiently. Managers use controlling and problem-solving processes to efficiently compare the staffed and organized system with the original budget and plan. Also, the procedures allow them to take corrective measures if there is a divergence from the original itinerary and enable the company to get the arrangement back on track (Kotter, 2001). Alternatively, motivating and inspiring are mechanisms used by leaders to energize people. Leaders do not engage in the push and pull of their people in the desired direction, but preferably satisfies their basic needs such as gives them a sense of belonging, self-esteem, and recognition for them to achieve the desired goal. Effective leaders can motivate in various ways. They can articulate a vision by stressing the values of the intended audience and involve the followers in the decision on how to achieve the vision. Also, leaders can support the efforts of the employees by coaching them and role modeling while offering feedback as well as recognizing and rewarding their success. Hence, motivating people differs from controlling and problem-solving, but both management and leadership skills are vital for the ever-changing social and economic marketplace.

My leadership style is transformational leadership which I would describe as the ability to motivate and inspire people. I, mostly act as a role model by demonstrating the desired actions through living them every day. Aside from that, I inspire them to work smarter and harder to ensure the fulfillment of the vision by creating a teamwork atmosphere that encourages others to work to realize the vision. Advising, coaching, and mentoring are also part of the strategies of transformational leadership which helps identify and fulfill employee needs that would better the overall organization. Hence, my leadership style inspires individuals to attain remarkable results and gives them autonomy over their jobs and authority to make decisions.

Conclusion

Leaders are made and not born. People grow, develop, and become skilled at leadership. There may be some genetic qualities that can act to speed up leadership development in individuals. But no evidence shows that leadership is the result of a person's personality. Leaders exist in various shapes and sizes, and very few characteristics can predict the potential. Curious, social, and ambitious people are likely to become leaders, but people born with a high IQ rarely emerge as a leader. Leadership behavior is an amalgamation of environmental and genetic factors. Some of the qualities may be inherent, but most of the practices are ensue over time. At the center of leadership, most of the expertise and behaviors can be quickly learned. Besides, if one would ask any leader how he or she grew to be the person he/she is today the answer would most likely not be that he/she was born with the gift but rather stories of struggles and hardships while learning to lead. The development of leadership does not come naturally, but through deliberate practice, sacrifice, and hard work. Hence, leaders are not born but made. Therefore, to lead better, I can work hard to change the system rather than work within it. I can maximize the capacity and capability of my team to enable every one of my followers to grow professionally.

Better understanding the role of leaders is crucial to organizations as both management and leadership have a vital role to play for the success of a company. Leadership is not inherent, but something learned through a deliberate process consisting of experimentation and coaching.

References

Kotter, J. P. (2001). What Leaders Really Do, Harvard Business Review.