Leadership

A leader can be a manager, but a manager is not necessarily a leader. The leader of the work group may emerge informally as the choice of the group. If a manager is able to influence people to achieve the goals of the organization, without using his or her formal authority to do so, then the manager is demonstrating leadership (Allen, 1998).

Great organizations are managed by people who have the necessary skills and attributes which allow them to connect with the organization and the people involved in the company. Managers must meet the many demands of performing their functions; managers assume multiple roles which include being a figurehead, leader, liaison, monitor, disseminator, spokesperson, entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator. Managers set and achieve the organizations goals by planning, organizing, controlling and leading. A manger can assume or delegate portions of authority to lead employees and achieve goals.

Being a leader is not the same as managing an organization. Leader's posses the interpersonal skills needed to influence others to achieve a goal willingly. Leading is a major part of a manager's job. Leaders do not need to be a manager to lead people, but managers must know how to lead as well as manage. Leaders also have the ability to inspire, motivate, change attitudes and influence others to achieve goals.

Managers have the ability to fire employees if they do not accomplish what needs to be done. The authority given to the manager allows them to control an employee based on fear of punishment, while a leader can influence an employee in other ways. Gemmy Allen says that the key point between leadership and management is the idea that employees willingly follow leaders because they want to, not because they have to (Allen, 1998).

Managers and leaders have the unique ability to either inspire or suppress employees by handling different situations accordingly. Managers, who have the ability to lead, are able to motivate employees to accomplish tasks without direct intervention by the manager. Employees that are inspired work diligently, effectively and efficiently because they want to. The culture in an organization which has great leaders is uplifting and pleasurable to work in. Organizations with non-leading managers are likely to fail because the employees are not happy working there.

The culture at my previous job with El Paso Natural Gas was not very fun to be in. The managers did not know how to lead during the merger and all of the employees were simply told what to do. Inspiration and motivation was replaced by fear of losing

your job and depression because the job became monotonous. Working there was one of the most horrible work experiences I have had.

I believe the role of the manager in an organization is all of the above. To be an effective manager, they must be able to lead, organize, plan and control the employees and resources. Managers who are not capable of doing all of the functions of management well should not be in a management position.

Creating and maintaining a healthy culture at El Paso requires great leadership. My first recommendation for El Paso is to replace the bad managers with transformational leaders who posses all of