Leadership And Management: The Characteristics Of A Leader And Manager

Leader and manager have been used as interchangeable terms for quite some time, but in all actuality, they differ greatly. Both require a specific skill set and view the world of business and relationships quite differently. Each of these require separate, yet complimentary actions to make a successful supervisor. The characteristics have distinct differences, but both have necessities in the business market which can be quite demanding and complex. For a firm/organization to be successful, they must employ great managers that have great leadership skills. Many people put themselves into a box by either being (or only knowing how to be) a manager or a leader, but as this paper will explain, to be successful one must find a proper balance. Many

Now that a manager has been defined, what is a leader? According to Kruse (2013), “Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal.” This is a great definition because it does not refer to power or authority over anyone, rather social influence. The other factor to this definition is that it does not have any mention of a specific style or traits associated with it because leadership can come in many different styles and traits. It also talks about maximizing the efforts of others, which is more of an influence and motivation. “They don’t make plans; they don’t solve problems; they don’t even organize people. What leaders really do is prepare organizations for change and help them cope as they struggle through it (Kotter, 1990).” Leadership copes with change, especially when the business market becomes so competitive and unpredictable. The more a market changes, the more business need leaders at the forefront. A big misconception is that leaders are only the ones with a certain title or position in a company. Hierarchy and title have absolutely nothing to do with leadership, rather anyone can be a leader that possesses the proper characteristics. Leadership is not something that can definitively be measured. Rather, it helps to accommodate management so that business metrics can be successfully obtained through management procedures. There is nothing mysterious about being a leader and

Every process and procedure has parameters that a manager must work within without allowing the structure interfere or infringe on the work or project at hand (Libin, 2016). The manager knows what needs to be done as well as understands the goals and how to supervise employees in such a way to achieve said goals. Planning should become second nature to managers whether its planning a project, employee schedules, budgets, or inventory. Structure and organization can oftentimes impede on creativity that drives projects in a certain direction while inspiring employees. Creativity is what adds appeal to the process and creates one cohesive unit from many different pieces. Creativity is great, but must be kept within the structure and parameters of the