Characteristics of Managers and Leaders

Studies on the subjects of leadership and management have the underlying difference between a leader and a manager as “managers maintain things and leaders change things.” Gill (2006:26) explains their difference as “Managers plan, allocate resources, administer and control whereas leaders innovate, communicate and motivate”

Management and leadership functions are definitely not one and the same, although they are unavoidably linked together hand and hand. Evidently, it is clear to note that they overlap and compliment one another. Having one without the other no doubt will cause more problems than it solves. Yet the two indefinitely have their major differences. To start, a manager manages tasks and systems, while a leader leads and inspires people. “The manager’s job is to plan, organize and coordinate. The leader’s job is to inspire and motivate.” (Murray, 2010).

Much has been written about the difference between management and leadership. In the past, competent management staffs ran effective companies. In light of our ever-changing world, however, most companies have come to realize that it is much more important to lead than to manage. In today's world the old ways of management no longer work. One reason is that the degree of environmental and competitive change we are experiencing is extreme. Although exciting, the world is also very unstable and confused. In an article entitled What’s the Difference between Your Hospital and the Other? Gary Campbell states that the difference between a manager and a leader is that the manager “finds himself quite willing to

Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”...

Northouse discusses leadership and management in depth, explaining the differences, similarities, and the theories behind each. The manager and leader roles are intertwined and contain many similar qualities such as working with others, influence, and accomplishing goals effectively and efficiently (Northouse, p. ). On another note, there are established differences between the two as explained by Northouse.

Classical organisational theorist defined leadership in terms of achieving a group’s objectives R.C Davies (1942) referred to leadership as “the principle dynamic forces that motivates and coordinates the organisation in the accomplishment of its objectives.” Similarly, Urwick (1953) stated that the leader is “the personification of common purpose not only to all who work under taking, but to everyone outside it.” K. Davies (1962) defined leadership as “the human factor which binds a group together and motivates it towards goals.” Cattell (1951) took the extreme position that leadership is whatever or whoever contributes to the group’s performance. To measure each members Leadership, Cattell noted, removed him or her from the group, one at a time, and observe what happens to the group’s performance. Calder (1977) and Pfeffer (1977) “stated that leadership is mainly influence and is even attributed to participants after the fact.

Many individuals within organizations make a distinction between leaders and managers, sometimes comparing managers unfavorably to leaders (Yukl, 2013). However, when defining what a leader is, many people struggle to provide a clear definition. Knowing how managerial activities and behavior are affected by the level of management as well as an understanding of the skills that are required at each managerial level can help consolidate the sometimes divergent perspective individuals have concerning leaders and managers. In addition, a review of leadership studies that have helped shape the modern viewpoint of leadership can assist in identifying some characteristics

Leadership and management although being seen as synonymous do differ, not every manager is a leader and vice versa.

Leadership has been studied extensively and many varying definitions exist. Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy (2015, p.4) review many of these definitions and consequently describe leadership as ‘the process of influencing an organised group towards its goals’. Leadership involves the interplay of a range of different factors, not least the leader themselves, the followers and the situation. For

Management and leadership are viewed as two different perspectives in the business environment. As described by Dr. Warren Bennis ‘Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing’, this means that managers do things by the set rules and follow company policy, while leaders follow their own intuition, which may in turn be of more benefit to the company.

Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing. — Warren Bennis, Ph.D. On Becoming a Leader

Whilst this may well be true, some may not find the words Leadership and Management so similar. Leadership provides the vision, whereas the management gets things done. In 1952 C.A.Gibb concluded an extensive survey of research into Leadership, by stating that: ‘any comprehensive theory of leadership must incorporate and integrate all of the major variables which are now known to be involved, namely (1) Personality of the leader, (2) the followers with their attitudes, needs and problems, (3) the group itself…(4) the situations as determined by physical setting , nature of task etc… No really satisfactory theoretical formulation is yet available. ’[ii]

Warren Bennis, in his book’ On Becoming a Leader (1989)’, compared leaders and managers. He concluded that” leaders were people who were the driving force in a business or organisation, innovating and initiating change, inspiring people to high levels of performance and challenging the status quo. Managers, on the other hand, where the people who organised, controlled and administered the resources available to achieve the tasks set by leaders”. Another way of looking at the difference between leadership and management is to recognise the difference between ‘doing the right thing’ and ‘doing things right’. Leaders do the right thing while managers concentrate on doing things right.

The concepts of leadership and management are often viewed in different ways with different theories and schools of thought regarding the meaning of these terms (Gold, Thorpe and Mumford, 2010). Management and leadership can be defined individually and encompass different roles and attributes, however, both management and

Some people think of the words Manager and Leader and think they are the same. The two are related, but the jobs are different. They might look the same, but don’t mean the same. Both Manager and Leader have different responsibilities in an organization. Leader will influence and set example for others to follow, this is called “do as I do, and Manager is do what I say”. In real life, some Managers possess leadership qualities and some Leaders possess some managerial qualities. Managers and Leaders are two different kinds of characters. It’s not easy to see the difference because the qualities of Managers and Leaders are each combined in the same person.