Leadership And Management: Definition, Theoretical Approaches, Skills, And Challenges

Definition and Distinction between the Terms ‘Leadership’ and ‘Management’

1. The definition and distinction between the terms ‘leadership’ and management?

2. An appraisal of two different theoretical approaches to leadership and management?

3. The skills, attributes and behaviours required for leading and managing teams effectively?   

                      
4. Two strategies to lead and manage diverse teams operating in different geographical settings?      

                                     

5. An analysis of three challenges involved in leading and managing staff?

6. Recommendations for responding to two challenges involved in leading a team in line with organisational and legal?

7. The importance of leading individuals and teams by example?

Leadership and management are two distinctive assets of an organization which have been discussed in the current report and how they add value to an organization. These two concepts are explained with the help of theoretical approaches to have broader sense of the topics. At last, it has been given that how leading by example leadership quality can help an organization to attain its objectives.

Leadership is an attribute that convinces people while management is a kind of discipline to manage things in the most appropriate manner (Algahtani, 2014). Leadership is an effective skill in order to lead others by skills and knowledge. However, management is an art of organizing and coordinating things in a systematical order. One who leads is a leader and one who manages is known as a manager and the manager is copy while the leader is original (Kotterman, 2006). The main objective of a leader is to innovate to focus on people and the main objective of a manager is to administer which focuses on system and structure (Kotter, 2001).  Hence, it can be stated that leadership requires sound foresightedness and management has a short term perspective.

Leadership and management are closely related or linked to each other but one can see a slight difference between both of them. For this, it is important to understand leadership and management with the help of theoretical approaches. In this regard, one of the significant theories to appraise the concept of leadership is trait theory as this includes the characteristics of leaders (Lopez, 2014). These characteristics are further utilized to analyze the effectiveness of leadership. Such traits help to differentiate between effective and ineffective leaders as successful leaders have interests and abilities, and behavioral traits that make them unique and different from unsuccessful leaders (Shahrill, 2014).

On the other hand, one of the best management theories is nudge theory as this help to get a better understanding of how people think, act and make decisions (Kotterman, 2006). Also, managers are people who help people to improve their thinking and decisions and one of the key roles of a manager is to manage change with an ease. In this regard, several changes are made in the policies of operational delivery and it is the responsibility of management to manage those changes with an ease so that citizens may get the service without any ambiguity (Gibson and Cohen, 2003).

Two Different Theoretical Approaches to Leadership and Management

It is extremely important for a manager as well as a leader to work with unity in order to manage and lead teams effectively. Effective leadership needs deep human qualities and enthusiasm as the meaning of actual leadership has been changed in the modern era. Good leadership in the modern era needs such traits and behaviors which may relate to humanity. This is because it is essential for people to deal with people with patience while providing the services of operational delivery (Aldag and Kuzuhara, 2015).

Apart from this, management of an organization should be flexible so that important changes can be made on time for the better functioning of an organization. an effectiveness management is one that manages its team efficiently and management should frame teams that have results driven structure as well as management should have the caliber to select the competent team members with unified commitment (Bertocci, 2009).

In this regard, some of the important skills and behaviors that are required for an effective leadership may include honesty and integrity. This means that leaders must maintain cordial relationships with their people so that they may adapt in any dynamic environment and work for the betterment of an origination. Besides this, few important traits which are required to manage teams effectively may include that managers must state clear roles and responsibilities of a team to avoid any ambiguity in future. In nutshell, there must be transparent and open communication among the team members so that communication misinterpretations can be avoided (Bertocci, 2009).

It becomes a major challenge to manage diverse teams which are operating in different geographical settings as teams are required to be in the similar physical location to work in an efficient manner (Adeniyi, 2007). Two different teams in different geographical locations may include variety of circumstances but it is important to sync both the teams to attain organizational objectives. One of the major strategies to resolve this problem is to select the right team players as right quality of people must be chosen for different situations. They should be self motivated and possess good communication skills. Apart from this, they must be results driven. This would help leaders to cope with both the teams in an easier manner (Northouse, 2010).

Another significant strategy is to make efforts to promote team bonding so that both the teams at different geographical locations may feel and work as a single team. This can be done by setting an intranet team page and build a virtual team room. Nowadays, it is really possible with the help of technology as this can be ensured with the help of webcams as video calls and such meetings would help both the teams to get connected to one another with an ease (Adeniyi, 2007).

Skills, Attributes and Behaviors Required for Leading and Managing Teams Effectively

Leaders and managers face some challenges while managing the staff in which one of the key challenges is to develop managerial effectiveness. The challenge of developing the related skills like time management and prioritization and decision making is become hard in such a highly competitive market. Workload has increased and one person has to deal with different projects at the same time due to which juggling with priorities is always an issue. Another major challenge is guiding change as all the individuals in an organization are not ready to accept change instantly (Ray, 2013).

It becomes critical issue to manage change and overcome resistance to change and deal with the reaction of employees at the time of implementation of a change. Some employees adapt the change very easily while some resist it in a different manner and it becomes really difficult to manage those employees at that point of time (Lopez, 2014). Apart from this, another major challenge involved in leading and managing staff may include balancing the needs of the organization as well as the needs of people working for it. It is very important to make all the employees realize that their organization value their sacrifices and respect their needs. In this regard, a leader has to make sure that fulfillment of needs of an individual should not impact the growth of an organization in order to manage staff in an appropriate manner (Kotter, 2001).

It is really necessary to manage and resolve all the challenges which are involved in leading a team in order to make the staff to work with the fullest efficiency. In this regard, it is important to make sure that employers do not overload employees with work to overcome the challenge of developing relevant skills. It has been stated by the government that a company cannot overload an employee with work and an effective leader makes sure to follow all the government legislations. In order to improve the working environment and prevent the factory workers from being exploited, the government decided to launch some provisions for them in which they cannot be compelled to work overtime. Henceforth, it has been recommended to leaders to manage the working hours of employees and labors so that they can finish their tasks on time without working for late hours or overtime (Kotter, 2001).

Another major challenge that leaders may face is resistance of employees during the implementation of a new change. It is true that it is wrong to go for change management very frequently as it becomes hard for employees to adapt to changes very frequently. But, there are some changes which are important to implement to ensure the better functioning of an organization. Hence, it is suggested to leaders to make employees to implement changes with delighted faces by provoking the advantages of that particular change. This can be done by stating the merits of that change for the growth of an organization as well as for their career advancement. Apart from this, it is recommended to a leader to introduce corporate counsel to change management strategy and determine how legal departments can utilize it to embrace the change fully with the main aim to meet legal requirement of a change (Algahtani, 2014).

Two Strategies to Lead and Manage Diverse Teams Operating in Different Geographical Settings

It is evident that good leaders always lead by example as leadership is an essential procedure by which one individual influences the behaviors, attributes and thoughts of other individuals and teams. Leaders set an example for others to make them to work on the right path and leading by example is the quality of a successful leader. The leaders who lead by example always follow ethics and make sure that their actions do not harm others. Ethics are contemplated as the significant part of a leadership as it makes the followers to understand the importance of ethics (Robinson, 2014).

The foremost part of leading by example is that they practice what they preach and they push their people forward with bulk of excitement, motivation, vision and trust. Henceforth, it can be said that the leaders who lead by example make its team members to trust them blindly which help them to push their limits to attain the major tasks. Apart from this, when an individual is asked to do something then, he might feel some kind of dilemma while performing the task but on the other hand, he may perform up to his best potential if his leader lead by example. This would clear all the doubts and his leader’s actions would convince him to respond in a positive manner to gain proper organizational outcomes without any kind of difficulty (Hernández, 2016).

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that effective leadership is like a ladder to achieve organizational targets. In this regard, leaders and managers may face some difficulties and challenges to manage and lead team in an effective manner. Some of the significant strategies have been discussed in the above section to overcome such challenges in order to ensure effective leadership and management.

References

Adeniyi, M.A. 2007 Effective Leadership Management: An Integration of Styles, Skills & Character for Today’s CEOs. AuthorHouse.

Aldag, R. and Kuzuhara, L. 2015 Creating High Performance Teams: Applied Strategies and Tools for Managers and Team Members. Routledge.

Algahtani, A. 2014. ‘Are Leadership and Management Different? A Review’, Journal of Management Policies and Practices, 2 (3), pp. 71-82.

Bertocci, D.I. 2009 Leadership in Organizations: There is a Difference Between Leaders and Managers. University Press of America.

Gibson, C.B. and Cohen, S.G. 2003 Virtual Teams That Work: Creating Conditions for Virtual Team Effectiveness. John Wiley & Sons.

Hernández, E. 2016 Leading Creative Teams: Management Career Paths for Designers, Developers, and Copywriters. Apress.

 Kotter, J. P. 2001 ‘What leaders really do?’, Harvard Business Review, 79 (11), p.85-96.

Kotterman, J. 2006 ‘Leadership versus management: What’s the difference?’, The Journal for Quality and Participation, 29(2), pp. 13-17.

Kotterman, J. 2006 ‘Leadership vs Management: What’s the difference?’, Journal for Quality & Participation, 29 (2), p.13-17.

Lopez, R. 2014 ‘The Relationship between Leadership and Management: Instructional Approaches and its Connections to Organizational Growth’, Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 6 (1), pp.

Northouse, P.G. 2010 Leadership: Theory and Practice. SAGE.

Ray, A. 2013 Important Leadership Theories in the Realm of Management Sciences. GRIN Verlag.

Robinson, S.A. 2014 Lead by Example: An Insiders Look at How to Successfully Lead in Corporate America and Entrepreneurship. Diversity Woman Media, LLC.

Shahrill, M. 2014 ‘Exploring educational administration: The relationship between leadership and management’, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 4(1), pp. 525-538.