To be effective you must possess both qualities. Understanding the team members and what makes them tick should be the driving force with management. The positive reenforcement from their performance is to maintain the leadership qualities needed to keep the entire team moving in the right direction with the right attitude.
Faney, Agreed! Every situation calls for either leadership or management skills, so it is important to have both.
Dr. Jean Norris
I consider that a leader is capable to guide a group towards a specific goal while a manager should be able to create order and organization. They are both different traits but equally important to ensure that a group can perform its intended tasks.
Ricardo, Great awareness. It sounds like you really care about your staff, and helping them succeed, by taking on the appropriate role. Thank you for sharing!
Dr. Jean Norris
In a small enterprise such as mine, the management and leadership roles become situational. I will need to be a manager when I need to complete a project. I will be a leader as I select that person to do that project and motivate that person to do his/her best.
Steven, We agree; it takes both managing and leading. Great awareness!
Dr. Jean Norris
I'll have to say: neither.
My rationale is this -- sometimes making sense of a situation or context requires a person to switch between the leader and manager hats. Some events require one to rally the faculty as to get them engaged with a plan. Sometimes one has to sit and figure out how to get people to efficiently (and within budget) as to actually tackle a group task. Thus, one must really thinking whether they lead or manage at a given moment and context as to make an effective action.
To me, the goal is learning to be both and distinguishing when to change hats. Hopefully, with training an experience, I may see leadership skills and managerial skills as tools rather than a mystical quality of a person.
Great skills to have, Tonia. We, too, believe that both management and leadership skills go hand-in-hand. Thank you for sharing!
Dr. Jean Norris
Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to work in the midst of great leaders and managers. As an employee, I often observed the unique skills of the manager and leader respectively. This resulted in me learning the managerial skills needed to become an effective manager and leadership skills to become an effective leader. Therefore, I have the ability to adapt to taking on the role of a leader as well as a manager when necessary for the growth of the organization.
Tonia, Excellent point, we agree! It takes the combo to be fully successful. It sounds like you are speaking from experience. Can you share with the forum you experience?
Dr. Jean Norris
I feel that being a leader is not more important than being a manager and vice versa. In my opinion, an effective leader and manager are equally important to an organization. However, a good leader derives from a strong manager who has the ability to motivate their employees to do the best job for the organization as a whole.
An effective manager also must possess leadership qualities as well in order to transition employees into leaders. One advantage of a good manager is being able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of its employees. These are key elements a manager must have to help its employees become the best they can be as leaders are made in the process.
Matthew, We agree! It's the dynamic duo for success with your department and employees! Thank you for sharing.
Dr. Jean Norris
Being an academic department chair I feel that I have to wear both hats as a manager and as a leader. I manage the day to day operations for both faculty and staff and at the same time I need to be a leader with a clear vision to inspire my faculty and students within my department. I think that you need to have a good combination of both to be successful in higher education these day.
Anthony, Thank you for sharing and discussing with others in the forum.
Dr. Jean Norris
I agree with you completely Brian. Both leading and managing are of equal importance and it's the particular situation, timeline in the project, etc that determines when one is needed more than the other.
Alan,
Excellent awareness. Thank you for sharing this comment in the forum!
Dr. Jean Norris
Alan,
Great awareness! How are you working to improve both of these skills?
Dr. Jean Norris
Alan,
So true. Also consider that management and leadership not as titles, but as attributes. Do you believe these attributes go hand in hand?
Dr. Jean Norris
People do want to follow a good leader but sometimes a great management has to take a good look at themselves and recognize the fact they don't or do have some leadership skills. I am sure many great managers thought they had great leadership skills. Also, it is up to the leader to recognize that they might have a person with the wrong management skills in the wrong position.
I feel that a person has to have mentors in both management and leadership positions. I have always kept in mind when choosing a mentor that I need the help in being more proficient with my leadership skills. But then again, I need the help in keeping my management skills proficient.
