Is a manager a leader? Is a leader a good manager?
In order to understand this discussion well, it is important to distinguish the difference in terminology. According to the book “Understanding Management” by Richard L. and Dorothy Marcic, “Management is the attainment of organizational goals in an effective and efficient manner through planning, organizing, leading, and organizational resources”. The book also defines leadership in Chapter 11 as “the ability to influence people toward the attainment of goals.”
Although they both have different definitions, they are in fact very close in business practice, the manager is characterized by having conceptual, human and technical skills and although the degree of these skills may vary, managerial roles fulfill functions based on planning, organization, implementation and control.
The Leader, a relatively new concept introduced with great force in the last decades, covers a large spectrum within the variation in the types of leadership such as Servant Leadership which transcends self-interest to serve others a great example is Queen Elizabeth of England, the Authentic Leadership, which refers to people who are self-aware and act according to their ethical values, empowering and inspiring as Gretta Thunberg, the Interactive Leadership which focuses on promoting communication and listening emotional skills, an example may be Malala Yousafzai, among many types of leadership.
What distinguishes leaders from good managers is that leaders, in addition to having administrative skills, have the magnificent ability to influence the hearts and minds of people, many blogs and internet resources have been responsible for demonizing the word manager as a description of the past, of a structured person without vision, which I am against, not all leaders are managers and not all managers are leaders, it is not mandatory, it could be a good practice to find a balance to be able to develop skills that complement our management or leadership.
I would like to mention an article I read this week in my strategic leadership class which perfectly complements my Management practices subject, “In praise of the incomplete leader” by Deborah Ancona in Harvard Business Review. This article emphasizes the need to end the idealization that is given to leaders as superheroes who can handle everything and know everything, people who manage to call themselves leaders must be aware of their strengths but also their weaknesses, only by understanding those incomplete aspects will they be able to find in others the knowledge and skills to compensate, therefore, the incomplete leader has the confidence to re-recognize the talents in they work team and maximize their potential.
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