LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

Am I a Leader or a Manager?

Am I a Leader or a Manager?

Introduction Even though leading and managing are closely linked terms, one cannot identify the irony of differences between “leading” and “managing” till he or she is actually involved in these two tasks simultaneously. The irony of perceived duties as a School Principal led me to think about the role I have played in these years, have I been a leader or just a manager? Does each role demand different skills and knowledge? Does my role involve management, leadership or both? All these questions led me to analyze the roles and tasks I have executed and performed in all these years as a school principle. As a principle, there was no one role I had to perform. The esteem, value, responsibility related with the hierarchy I belong to has pushed me to perform several roles at a time. The assignment will focus (via a literature review and reflective journal) on the definitions of leadership and management, their applications in general, and more specifically within the dimension of my duties and roles as a school principle. The assignment will explore the dichotomy that I see myself with - my role encompasses a lot of facets and several different dimensions of tasks. Some of these will be mentioned in the document ahead. The content of the document is designed to explore my personal reflection on leading and managing as part of my JD.

Discussion

In literature, one might find that several academics differentiate between leadership and management. This indicates the notion that management is all about maintaining the status quo, managing the things around and organizing the framework. Leadership on the other hand is about motivating and directing people working under you to meet the goals and objectives. The roles I perform require an intricate incorporation and perfect blend of both these qualities. In fact, to manage things efficiently one requires motivated subordinates who can help organizing things. On the other hand for effective leadership, management is needed. Hence they both strongly depend on each other and several academics define leadership as an important and critical component of management.

The phrases “management” and “leadership” are regarded pretty contrarily by multitude of people. A lot of people view these terminologies as synonyms and often use them interchangeably through-out sentences and phrases. Others consider them as drastic opposites; so significant, indeed, that they might claim that you simply cannot be a good leader and a good manager simultaneously. Nevertheless other individuals reside some-where in the centre and acknowledge that while there exists a difference between management and leadership, with the appropriate know-how a person can effectively navigate both from the same position.

Criticisms of the characteristic and connected beliefs resulted in an alternative method of investigation into extraordinary leadership and management contributing to the behavior philosophy. This concentrates on the way leaders conduct themselves and what behaviors were connected with successful leadership. Management largely believes in dictatorship where as leadership believes in ...