Managing and Leading People

1. Introduction

Leadership and management both are crucial for well-organization of a business. Apparently, the meaning of leadership and management seems similar, but they are different enough. Good management is important to provide the best services to the target group of people in an equitable, appropriate, sustainable and efficient manner. Better management in an organization can be achieved with perfect integration between the human resources and other resources of the firm. Unlike management, leadership is important to guide the team members or followers to achieve the maximum target or to enhance the performance. The main tasks of a leader are motivation, guidance, confidence creation, moral formation, and co-ordination with other teammates. Adversely, managers give directions to the employees work under him or her. It can be said that management means effective planning, whereas leadership means inspiration. Both are important for the workers, but they work in a different way.

The key difference between managers and leaders is people follow the guidelines and suggestions of the leader, whereas people simply work for the manager as per directions. In a small business, the owner works as a manager and a leader, so it becomes important to manage the work of the employees and to lead them for better productivity. Leadership is all about to lead the followers to believe in the common vision of the company. On the other hand, management signifies the administration of daily operations and records the daily activities and match they are going accordingly. In the present study, a critical discussion is considered to show the main differences between leadership and management in an organization. Following the differences between managers and leaders, the key characteristics of them are also discussed. Along with the difference between leadership and management, the study also aims to reflect major issues related to the contemporary organization's leadership and the ways to manage the issues.

1.1 Difference between managers and leaders

The manager is the member of a company who carries the responsibility of crucial management functions like- leading, controlling, planning, organizing and implementing the strategies. Most of the managers have the quality of leaders, but if they carry out the leadership responsibilities along with management responsibilities, then they are called leaders (Duggal, 2020). The main responsibilities of a leader are encouraging, guiding, motivating, communicating and inspiring the employees to enhance the overall productivity of the team. Hence, it can be said that all managers do not have leadership quality. Managers with poor leadership quality fail to guide the employees properly, and the employees work under the manager due to follow the obligations of the organization (O’Leary, 2016). The duties of a manager are bounded and formal part of the description of the particular job. The duties of a manager are described as per the role and which department, the individual is going to serve for. The main focus of an individual appointed in a managerial position is to follow the organizational objectives and goals. Managers have the privilege and authority to promote, reward, hire and terminate an employee based on the behaviour and performance. The different between managers and leaders and their perspectives are shown through the different traits carried by the leaders and managers. 

Traits of a manager: There are four important traits that a manager possesses:

The first trait is the direction ability, which shows an individual’s daily efforts to review the resource and to make changes accordingly. Another trait is process management through which a manager establishes standards, operating procedures, work process and rules. The third trait is the vision execution that allows a manager to follow the strategic vision of the organization and break it as a roadmap for success (Duggal, 2020)

. A manager is also responsible for responding to the needs of the people and involves them in certain decisions and takes recommendations from them to enhance productivity.

Figure 1: Basic traits of a manager

Source: (Duggal, 2020)

Traits of a leader: Five main traits of leadership should be existed in an individual to lead the team in a better manner. 

The first trait is integrity and honesty, which symbolizes the honest nature of an individual to lead the team in adequate path. The second trait is the inspiration that signifies the ability of the leader to inspire others to work better or perform better. Vision is a crucial fact in leadership, and a leader helps the followers to walk on the pathway based on the vision of the entity (Duggal, 2020). Communication skill plays a great role in effective leadership because proper communication is required to maintain information flow as well as to make the team understand about a matter. A leader should have a challenging nature to face all the problem occurs within the team. Hence, problem-solving nature is the most common characteristic of an effective leader.

Figure 3: Traits of a leader

Source: (Duggal, 2020)

The traits of leaders and managers reflect the difference of their thinking, work-process and perspectives. The theories of management and leadership also show the difference of both the concepts and the application of the theories lead an individual to follow different viewpoints. 

Management theories

There are certain theories of management that allow the individual to follow the managerial characteristics and to implement accordingly. 

System management theory: It is an alternative approach for the management and planning of the organization. System management theory describes the structure of an organization like a human body that has several components and together works harmoniously for optimal function. As per this theory, the success of a company depends on the interrelation, synergy and interdependence of different subsystems (Management Theories - How Modern Organizations Manage People, 2020). The theory also shows that employee is the most crucial component of an organization along with other components like business units, departments and workgroups. 

Scientific management theory: It was established by Frederick Taylor, who was an American mechanical engineer and known as the oldest management theorist. The philosophy of Taylor through scientific management theory shows that forcing the employees to work better is not a great way to increase productivity, but it is important to simplify the task to obtain better results (Kitana, 2016). As per his philosophy, money is the key to enhance the performance, so it is important to give fair wage and benefits to the employees to peak their performance.

Theory y and x: Douglas McGregor is the inventor of two contrasting theories named theory y and theory x. Both of the theories signify two different management styles- Theory y means the participative style and theory x means authoritarian style (Jarašūnienė, Sinkevičius and Mikalauskaitė, 2017). If the team member in an organization minimum passion towards their work it means the manager is following authoritarian style and if the members are working in an enthusiastic way and carries a willingness to learn, it means the manager is following the participative style of management.

Contingency management theory: The theory describes that there is no such management approach that is applicable to every organization. A management approach should be followed based on the external and internal factors of that organization. The contingency theory explains that there are three variables that influence the structure of an organization are- leadership style, organization size and employed technology. Fred Fiedler is the developer of this theory and explains that a manager should be flexible to adapt to the environment change in the organization.

Figure 2: Important management theories

Source: (Management Theories - How Modern Organizations Manage People, 2020)

Unlike the managers, it is not necessary for a leader to hold a managerial position in the organization. Being a leader does not mean that the individual has to be the authority figure of the company. Leaders are followed by the team members for their belief, personality and behaviour. Leaders make sure that each member of the teamwork properly to attain the team goal as well as to the overall goal of the organization. Leaders do not have a tangible power over the followers, but the power is temporary and given to the leader on conditional based. 

Leadership theories

It is important for an individual to understand the leadership theories and styles. Leadership theories mainly comprise of the qualities that an individual should have to become an effective leader. The main leadership theories are discussed below:

Behavioural theory: It focuses on the environment or surrounding of a person that helps in the formation of leadership. Conditioning is the key concept of this theory, and it states that an individual leading in a certain style is the result of the environmental response of that person to a certain behaviour (Nawaz and Khan, 2016). 

Great man theory: It explains that the excellent leadership qualities in an individual are not developed, but the qualities exist in an individual from birth. It is based on the leadership concepts of the 19^th century that describes the qualities of a leader is inherent (Foti et al., 2017). The leaders who follow this theory sometimes possesses natural intelligence, intuition, courage, charm and confidence.

Situational theory: This theory is not stuck to a particular style of leadership, but it describes that leaders should be adaptive as per the situation. The theory argues that an individual who can adapt the leadership style based on the particular situation is the real leader (Foti et al., 2017). Situational leaders are flexible enough and respond to the situation with their participation, command, delegation, and coaching.

Trait theory: This leadership theory describes that there are some natural qualities that make an individual a good leader. In this context, certain qualities do not signify that one should have only strong leadership skills (Nawaz and Khan, 2016). Leaders should have good communication skill and need to listen to their followers.

Contingency theory: The theory enforces on the variables in the same setting, and the variables determine the leadership style suited for a particular situation. The theory describes that not a single principle of leadership is applicable to all situations (Leadership Theories - Learn About Key Leadership Theories, 2020). As per the perspectives of White and Hodgson the adequate leadership means the perfect balance between the needs, context and behaviour. 

Figure 4: Leadership theories

Source: (Leadership Theories - Learn About Key Leadership Theories, 2020)

1.2 Major issues of leaders in contemporary organizations

Besides the growing effectiveness of leadership, there are certain issues that are faced by the leaders in organizations. Due to the change in the workplace culture, and environment, the different attitude of the employees and changing demand of the market, the requirement of leadership is changing (The Top 6 Leadership Challenges Around the World | CCL, 2020). Leaders in almost all countries, especially in the UK face six major problems regarding leadership in the organization. These six challenges should be focused to mitigate the problems that occurred from them.

Inspiration to others: the main challenge regarding motivation and inspiration for employees is to ensure that the team members are satisfied with the job and the work environment is suitable for them. Sometimes it became difficult for a leader in making the employees feel comfortable with the job because the expectations of the employees are not discussed with the leader openly.

Honing effectiveness: There are certain skills that are required to develop in an employee rather than only emphasizing on regular performance. The relevant skills are strategic thinking, time-management, decision making, prioritization and speed up quality are required for more effective performance. The development of relevant skills is challenging for a leader.

Team leading: Team management is one of the crucial facts of leadership that comprises of team development and team building. The challenges regarding team management include the way to better lead a big team and the additional things that a leader should do while taking the responsibility of a new team.

Stakeholders’ management: There is another challenge for leaders that is to maintain a relationship with other members of the company. The challenge involves a relationship with other departments and groups, gain managerial support, and synchronization between the activities of each department.  

Employees’ development: The development of the employees is essential to enhance the overall productivity of the organization. Hence, it is the biggest challenge for the leaders to enhance the performance of the employees with the help of continuous coaching and monitoring process.

Change guidance: During a change occur in the organization; it is the responsibility of leaders to make the employees understand about the need for change. There are some employees who are not ready to accept the change due to fear of the unknown. Hence, it becomes a major thing for the leaders to make the employees understand about the change and guide them to accept the change effectively. 

Figure 5: Leadership Challenges

Source: (The Top 6 Leadership Challenges Around the World | CCL, 2020)

1.3 The ways to respond to leadership challenges

There is four strong way to respond to the challenges that occur during leadership. 

More delegation: it is important for a leader to empower the employees to make them feel integral with the organization for better performance. Hence, effective delegation is required in the leadership to lead the employees in a better way. The effective delegation includes four steps that are the following:

Prioritize the preferences

The delegators who are effective they prioritize the workload as per requirement and set the time base on the necessity of the work. The leaders with effective delegation allocate the task to the team members as per the capability of them. The leaders also collect the feedback from each employee to whom the work is allocated. 

Know about the people

Before assigning the tasks to the employees, a leader must have knowledge about the skill and capability of each employee. It is important to assign the tasks as per the skill of the employees to the successful completion of the task (Wolven, 2020). Understanding the team members is very crucial for a leader because it helps to assign the task accordingly and to inspire them effectively. 

Clear purpose of a particular task

The purpose of a task is related to its objectives, so it is important to align the purpose of a particular task with the teammates. The alignment of purpose develops the goal and belief of the teammates to carry out the task significantly.

Assessment and reward

Continuous assessment of employees 'performance is required because of enhancing them. Assessment works as a mirror for the employee, and they can learn from the mistakes. Similarly, the reward is also crucial to enhance the performance of the employees. If an employee completes a task effectively and causes better team production, then he or she should be rewarded. Reward makes the employees satisfied with their job fuels up their energy for the next task.

Set proper goals: A leader should always be proactive while setting the goals along with setting the timeline of a task. Proper goals are important to keep the team members on track. However, there are distractions that may occur during short and long-term goals, bur the leader have to set the roadmap such a way that the distractions can be eliminated while they occur. Goal setting is important because it helps the leaders to carry out the team activity based on the map that is developed. The best way to develop better goals is to follow SMART approach through which the leaders can build better goals. The approach signifies five crucial elements that should be existed in a goal- measurable, realistic, specific, timely and attainable. 

Clarification of the role: A leader needs to understand the core responsibilities and the secondary responsibilities to manage the workload. The core responsibilities need to be performed by the leader, whereas the secondary responsibilities can be performed by any of the responsible member of the team who can do it. A leader needs to act on the additional responsibilities along the traditional responsibilities, so it became important for the leader to prioritize the responsibilities and act as per necessity. As per the perspectives of most leaders, the leadership is judged by their efficiency on core responsibilities. Effective communication of messages is crucial for a leader to avoid misunderstanding. 

Increase the unique value: A leader should focus mainly on those tasks that can be done only by him or her and the other works should be delegated to the team members. The prioritization of work is very necessary because the leader should pay attention to the tasks ad per their importance. To overcome the leadership challenges, it is important for the leaders to contribute more for the organization in the purpose of creating unique value. It is important for a leader to understand the requirement of the organization to create such values. Hence, a leader needs to increase personal leadership ability along with self-awareness. 

1.4 Conclusion

Leadership and management are two crucial aspects of an organization and both of them are important for the ultimate productivity. They carry different meaning but intensify to enhance the productivity of the organization. The main tasks of a leader are motivation, guidance, confidence creation, morale formation, and co-ordination with other team mates, whereas managers give directions to the employees work under him or her. Managers with poor leadership quality fail to guide the employees properly and the employees work under the manager due to follow the obligations of the organization. Leaders are followed by the team members for their belief, personality and behaviour. Leaders make sure that each member of the team work properly to attain the team goal as well as to overall goal of the organization. The duties of a manager are described as per the role and which department, the individual is going to serve for.  The leadership and management theories help an individual to adapt adequate leadership or management style to guide the employees. Hence, it can be said that there is an effective contribution of the theories in developing efficient leadership and management. The leaders face severe challenges during the implementation of leadership style in the organization and to lead the team effectively. Due to the change in the workplace culture, and environment, different attitude of the employees and changing demand of the market, the requirement of leadership is changing. There are several ways that are described in the study to mitigate those challenges. 

The traits of leader and manager also show the critical distinction between the roles and personality of the individuals. The study also reveals the efficiency of the theories in the development of managerial and leadership role within an organization.