According to me, a leader is one who inspires others through his actions. The actions of leaders are always inspired by self-awareness. Leaders have certain impeccable characters that distinguish them from ordinary individuals. In other words, leaders are principle-centered that makes them stick on to certain cherished values, regardless of the challenges they encounter from time to time (Covey, 1991). No wonder, leaders who allow their actions to speak rather than their words motivate others to do what they do, which in turn creates more and more future leaders.
A good leader develops a good team of employees; together, the leader and employees develop better goods and services. A definition of leadership is quite important as leaders are compelled to make their teams always productive by maintaining the morale of employees. Also, getting things done by others at the right time is crucial towards maintaining competency in the current global business scenario. Existing in a highly competitive market is a challenging task as it requires a set of uncompromising principles to be implemented in the workplace. A leader comes in handy to make an organization successful through his actions by aligning his personal values with that of the organizational objectives. For instance, Jeff Bezos, an inspiring business leader on the planet today and the Chief Executive Officer of Amazon.com, says that a brand is formed not by what the organization says about the product, but what the company does to make the product more special to the consumers (Kimberly, 2014). Jeff is a leader who leads his organization through people-orientation and self-awareness. His obsession towards making life easier for others reflects in his business philosophy of always putting the customers ahead of profits, which is the secret of his phenomenal success.
My perspective of leadership is: a leader should be capable of inspiring change in the organization since life is not about walking a straight corridor always. Besides, the current market place, which is vulnerable to globalization and fast changing consumer preferences, is always looking for differentiated products and services. Catering to the needs of changing consumer attitude and preference requires leaders with flawless skills that inspire followers not by their words, but by deeds. In other words, a leader through his style of leadership exercises a moral authority upon his followers. Moral authority readily comes to leaders through doing or allowing their deeds to do the talking. Followers of a good leader copy his behavior patterns and apply them in the workplace towards achieving common organizational goals. Thus, leaders are change agents who motivate their followers to embrace change (Johnson & Blanchard, 2002).
My approach to understanding leadership is rather simple. A leader should be able to accomplish his organizational goals with his team each day and year under varying organizational and environmental circumstances. My approach to leadership starts with a simple definition that a leader should be able to inspire change at all times depending upon the challenging external situations. Of course, it does call for actions induced by a person’s instinct or self-awareness. Leaders are not popular or super natural individuals; instead, they are simple human beings who act differently to make a change and inspire numerous others in the process of following their instinct.
I would define management as the process of doing things in a systematic manner. Following certain rules and regulations is very important in management. Management and leadership are two entirely different operations, and therefore a leader may not necessarily be a manager and vice-versa. As management warrants the application of certain predetermined principles in the workplace, a manager cannot always act on his own; instead, he needs the guidance of a top management or a business leader to determine the rules and regulations to be followed to achieve organizational objectives from time to time. Simply put, management is the process of achieving the visions or goals set by business leaders. Therefore, mangers are always required to focus on reengineering and framing rules for the smooth accomplishment of business goals (Buckingham & Coffman, 2005). In short, managers are responsible for equipping employees to achieve organizational goals through nurturing the skills and developing the talents of employees.
The primary difference between leadership and management is that leadership focuses on inspiring and developing people to scale great heights while management focuses on developing proper structures and systems to perform effectively in the work place. An effective manager is a sincere follower as he works continuously to devise a perfect system and work place culture to make the dream of the leader come true. Management is more about effecting control in the workplace while leadership persuades individuals to act in accordance with the control measures in the best interest of both the employees and the organization. Most importantly, management concentrates on achieving the short term organizational objectives and profitability while leadership focuses on diversification and exploration of new avenues and possibilities.
Even though leadership and management differ in their functions, both must always go hand in hand for the smooth accomplishment of organizational objectives. Efforts centered on separating the functions of management and leadership would prove disastrous. If an organization requires a leader to dream and frame business objectives, it requires efficient mangers to define purpose and assign tasks to the right persons. In other words, leaders keep on innovating and introducing new business ideas as responsible managers concentrate on ensuring the new ideas take appropriate shapes.
References
Buckingham, M., & Coffman, C. (2005). First break all the rules.Sydney: Pocket Books.
Covey, S.R. (1991). Principle-centered leadership.London: Simon& Schuster.
Johnson, S., & Blanchard, K. (2002). Who moved my cheese? London; Vermilion.
Kimberly, B. (2014). People and Purpose: What Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Teaches Us about Values. IMS. 01 July 2014. Web. 10 July 2016. http://www.ims.gs/blog/people-purpose-amazons-jeff-bezos-teaches-us-values/
