Using Zaleznik’s work as a foundation, John P. Kotter argued that effectively managing organisations required a balance between management and leadership, in which he postulated there were two distinct aspects, he cited the key differences between a Manager and an effective Leader as:
Managers:
- Focus and follow specific processes
- Prioritise stability and
control
- Have positional authority
- Exercise control
Leaders:
- Challenge the status quo
- Are patient within chaos and
a lack of structure
- Create a vision
- Guide people through change
- May have authority which is not
a necessary condition for demonstrating Leadership
However it is critical to note that these differences don't make one approach (Manager or Leader) better than the other, as organisations need strong Managers as well as effective Leaders. Many organisations are overly-managed and under-led, which makes it important for the organisation to nurture the development of effective Leadership skills. Anyone within an organisation has the ability to be a great Leader, Leaders encourage autonomy to engender in staff a level of self-motivation.
Research suggests that there isn’t necessarily a one-size-fits-all approach to effective Leadership, more that leading from a person’s unique strengths yields better results than trying to emulate other Leaders. This does have connotations as effective Leaders come in many diverse forms, with different strengths and weaknesses in Leadership styles that work effectively within a given set of circumstances, and environments. What is seen as weak Leadership in one given set of circumstances may prove to be strengths elsewhere.
Revolutionary Leadership styles may work best in entrepreneurial environments where change can be engendered instantaneously without any barriers to change being encountered. Whereas in more staid, stable environments where people are reluctant and un-engendered towards change, Leadership styles may be based on longer terms goals, aspirations and attainments.
Effective Leaders know, embrace and capitalise upon their strengths, whilst also acknowledging and managing their weaknesses within an organisational culture that suits them.
The concept of culture combines a range of elements from people’s upbringing, history, and community with the result that many characteristics can cause cultural differences in the workplace. A diverse workplace contains people of different age, experience, religion, and economic backgrounds. Some of the key cultural aspects that impacts Leadership within an organisation are:
- Generational
- Ethnic
- Religious
- Educational
The most effective Leaders incessantly focus on the
strengths of their team, engendering each staff member to feel empowered to do
their best to contribute towards achieving the team and organisations goals and
objectives. Focusing on staff strengths usually leads to higher staff
engagement and well-being, huge gains in the organisation’s financial
performance and the greatest attainment of customer service.
The critical role for a Leader is to ensure that the staff, team and organisational vision and operational aims and objectives come together as one in the most efficient and effective way, utilising the minimum of resources.
Effective Leaders recognise that they can’t excel at everything, they surround themselves with people who have complementary strengths, qualities, and skill sets resulting in teams that become high-performing teams. However they also understand and honour the four basic needs that team members have within the team:
- Trust
- Stability
- Hope
- Compassion
People are motivated to collaborate with Leaders that they can depend on, who genuinely care about them, provide a solid and reliable foundation, and inspire them with hope for the future. A combination of these generic qualities, along with self-awareness, are crucial factors that make for an effective Leader. Traits that the most effective Leaders possess include:
- Communication skills
- Negotiation abilities
- Emotional intelligence
- People empathy
- Moral integrity
- Creativity ingenuity
The primary difference between a Manager and Leader is that a Manager depends primarily on their skills whilst Leaders depend on their characteristics. Effective Managers possess three essential skills:
- Functional and technical
knowledge and abilities
- People and team
management
- Operational conceptual skills
Effective Leaders use six primary Leadership styles to effectively influence an organisation:
- Visionary
- Coaching
- Affiliative
- Democratic
- Pacesetting
- Commanding
The biggest issue for most organisations is to translate their strategic intent into the tactical and operational plans required to establish their goals and objectives. There is a perception that Leaders only exist at the higher levels of management, however a truly effective organisation understands that Leaders exist at all levels of the management structure.
Of primary importance for an organisation is to be able to translate the strategic organisational vision into a Mission Statement that the rest of the organisation will “buy” into. The critical success elements of the vision must be aligned to the personal beliefs and ambitions of those who have the ability to translate the Mission Statement into the tactical and operational plans to achieve the organisations goals and objectives.
What most organisations fail to understand is that the actions of translating the organisations vision into a strategy may not happen at the higher levels of management, or within the functions that have been traditionally responsible for setting the organisations strategic intent. The translation of vision into strategy is increasingly occurring within the middle management structure.
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