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Essay on Leaders vs Managers

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Leaders Vs Managers Steven Powell MGT 380 Ms. Alysia Young July 12, 2010 There is the age old question of what is the difference between a manager and a leader? Most people will say that you can’t be a manager without being a leader. In this paper, I will discuss in detail, what is it that leaders and managers do, can leaders and managers be one in the same, as well as, explain the difference between managers and leaders. Most successful businesses usually consisted of a team of successful managers. Note that in order to be a manager it does not require a person to be a leader. Managers often ask your "how" and "who" questions in an organization. Managers are about appealing to the head through planning, …show more content…

(Tanner, 2009) A leader is also a person who guides others toward a common goal, showing the way by example, and creating an environment in which other team members feel actively involved in the entire process. A leader is not the boss of the team but, instead, the person that is committed to carrying out the mission of the business. A strong leader will possess several qualities such as being a good listener, focused, organized, available, includes others, decisive and confident. (“What is,” 2009) These qualities make an effectively leader as well as a manager. In order to be a leader or managers, a person needs not be one in the same. Because simple put, some people are managers and other people are leaders. A manager has a different agenda than a leader, for example, managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing. This means that managers do things by the book and follow company policy, while leaders follow their own intuition, which may in turn be of more benefit to the company. (“The Difference,” 1997). A leader is more emotional than a manager is. Another major distinction, is as a manager, in order to get a subordinate to do a job, the manager doesn’t have to be a leader because he or she is given that power by virtue of position, in other words, all the manager has to do is tell a subordinate to do something because he or she is the manager, they must be

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