Do Effective Managers Also Need To Be Good Leaders?

Do Effective Managers Also Need To Be Good Leaders?

Remember the difference between a boss and a leader:

A boss says, "Go!" a leader says, "Let's go!"

- E.M. Kelly

In order to answer the above question, we first need to define managers and leaders. Each of who have their roles defined. Then, we should compare the differences and similarities between the two, and determine if effective managers need to be good leaders.

A manager is one who gets things done through other people, in order to achieve stated organizational objectives . Thus, an effective manager is one who efficiently and successfully can achieve the objectives of the organization. Managerial work can also be summarized as clarification of objects, planning, organizing, directing and controlling. 'Effective Manager' can thus be defined in the terms of the quantity and quality of standards of performance, and the satisfaction and commitment of subordinates.

Leadership is often linked with reference to one person leading. Leadership is a self-motivated and involves four components. First, to lead involves influencing others. Second, where there are leaders there are followers. Third, leaders seem to come to the forefront when there is a crisis or special problem. In other words, they often become visible when a ground-breaking response is needed. Fourth, leaders are people who have a clear idea of what they want to achieve and why. Thus, leaders are people who are able to think and act creatively in non-routine situations and who set out to influence the actions, beliefs and feelings of others. It is very difficult to form an accurate definition of leadership, as there are many factors involved in leadership. But, basically, a leader can be defined as a person who is in charge of others, and had a relationship with them through which he can influence their actions or behavior .

While managers are associated with words like efficiency, planning, paperwork, procedures, regulations, control, and consistency, leaders are more often thought of in terms of risk-taking, creativity, change, and vision. There are a few things that leaders can do to make teams and organizations successful. They are, selecting talent, motivating people, coaching, and building trust.

Effectiveness of Leadership Styles.

Goleman reports that, according to research conducted by Hay/McBer, six well-known styles of leadership were found common between samples of 3871 executives worldwide, and measured their efficiencies.

* Coercive leaders: Leaders who demand immediate action.

* Authoritative leaders: Leaders who lead people towards a vision.

* Affiliative leaders: Leaders who work on the basis of emotional bonds and harmony, which they create.

* Democratic leaders: Leaders who take decisions based on common consensus.

* Pacesetting leaders: who expect self-direction and excellence from staff.

* Coaching leaders: leaders who develop personnel for the future.

Out of the six, only four types of leadership styles had a positive influence. Coercive and Pacesetting styles have a negative effect. The coercive style demands immediate action. Moreover, it is not very flexible and motivating. Successful leaders are aware of how a change will impact people throughout the department and/or the entire organization. The project manager and team members need a good communication plan to prepare people who will participate in or be affected by the change.

The project manager and the team members must be able to clearly communicate the vision of the project and/or how the project fits into a larger vision of where the department is going. This means taking time to talk with people inside and out of the department, individually or in small groups, to share the vision and explain how the project will affect them.

Clarke and Pratt identified four main types of managerial leadership, which are required to be used in different stages of the business:

Champion: when a new corporate venture develops into a business, it needs to be supervised by a 'champion', to fight and defend the business. He should be able to influence a team to win orders, provide managerial skills and have the efficiency to deal with a variety of matters.

Tank commander: as the business grows, the leader should have the ability to form a strong and able team who can exploit the market.

Housekeeper: As the business matures, the housekeeper has to be able to ensure that the business runs efficiently, overcoming the different difficulties.

This involves proper planning, budget control and policies regarding the personnel.

Lemon-squeezer: Although the business is likely to be in the mature stage for many years, sometimes the company enters into a premature decline. The lemon-squeezer has to extract maximum benefits and profits from this situation. He has to be tough and innovative, ensuring steps like cost cuts, productivity improvement, and maintain staffing levels.

It is a little difficult to assign a role to a manager at each stage of the business. Although there are exceptions, not all managers can be all types of leaders.

Usually, a human-relations approach to a task is more favorable, and it is more likely to obtain job-satisfaction and a good work performance, as compared to an autocratic style. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes, using an autocratic approach to get the task done is more effective than the people-oriented approach. This is usually true when the task at hand proves to be very favourable or very unfavourable to leader-member relations, position power and task structure. Also, few employees respond better and have a better job performance when exposed to a more task oriented approach. Thus, even though the people oriented approach is usually considered the best, sometimes a task-oriented approach has to be taken.

Thus, it can be said that there is no approach that is perfect approach that works in every task. An approach, which is efficient in one task, may be very inefficient in another.

Drucker identifies the five main and basic operations that need to be performed by a