November 28, 2014
What is the difference between leaders and managers?
This is one of the most common questions among business executives who wish to improve their skills and help their respective companies grow. Ideally, one does not have to be a manager in order to become a leader. In fact, there is a huge difference between the two despite the fact that they are closely related.
Ideally, managers are only focused on giving instructions and orders to their staff while leaders not only direct their team to achieve goals but also help them to make informed decisions by encourage and motivating them. Below are some facts on leadership vs management that you should know about as a manager.
Inspiration
Managers are less concerned about feelings and needs of their employees as long as they hit the set targets or goals. On the contrary, leaders are keen to understand their staff and will often take time to inspire and motivate in a bid to exploit their professional and social skills to the fullest. This will in the long run reduce their chances of quitting and increase their productivity. Hence, as a leader you should not shy away from talking to your employees’ personally so as to get an in-depth understand on their aspirations and goals in life
Ability to Change
Who said that a particular task or operation can only be successfully achieved by just using one strategy or procedure? Managers tend to just stick to one or two ways of doing things. Woe unto you if you are such a manager as you will not be able to recover fast when faced with tussles such as high operating costs. Leaders understand this fact too well and have put in place measures that help them bounce back from such perturbations before incurring any losses. You too can become a leader by looking for new ways that you can use to enhance operations in your organizations and cushion it from losses in case of rampant or unforeseen economic changes.
Excellent Communication Skills
Managers have inadequate communication skills and this explains their limited ability to interact with their staff professionally without taking advantage of their status quo and assumed expertise. This is based on the fact that they are less concerned on the processes that are undertaken to achieve a particular objective. Leaders have excellent communication skills which they use to disseminate information to their seniors and staff. This in the long run helps them to achieve goals easily and complete projects on time. Also, they have good listening skills which help them to understand what their team needs to become successful.
Results-Oriented
Leaders are highly results-oriented and will not hesitate to use their good time management and professionals skills to achieve specific objectives. On the other hand, managers are reluctant to get their hands dirty even when they know that employees do not have the required skills to get the job done. This in turn results in massive wastage of resources and time.
As you can see from these leadership vs management facts, you should work hard and smart to become a leader and not a manager in your organization no matter your academic qualifications, rank and experience.