What Makes The Difference In Leadership?Essay Preview: What Makes The Difference In Leadership?Report this essayWhat Makes the Difference in Leadership?Leadership is a term that is used a lot in the modern business world. Many companies emphasize the need for a strong, powerful leader. Struggling businesses prosper with the help of an effective leader and well-established ones earn even more profit and market share. A good leader can motivate his team and push his employees to their limit. He is an integral part of a successful organization. So what does it take to be a good, strong and effective leader? What makes the difference between a good leader and a bad one?
One of the key components to understanding leadership is having a clear understand what a leader actually is. Many people believe that a leader and a manager are synonyms. It is true that they go hand in hand and are both vital parts of an organization, but they have core differences. A manager is all about the mind, whereas a leader is about the soul. Managers promote stability and structure; leaders provide vision, values and interests. These differences are outlined in the table below:
LeaderManagerVisionaryRationalPassionateConsultingCreativePersistentFlexibleProblem SolvingInspiringTough-mindedInnovativeAnalyticalCourageousStructuredImaginativeDeliberateExperimentalAuthoritativeInitiates ChangeStabilizingPersonal PowerPosition PowerA leaders job is to come up with an idea, vision or goal and inspire his subordinates to implement it. He is responsible for motivating them and getting them to give all they got to make his vision become a reality. A good leader will present his vision in a way that it will become his employees personal goal to achieve what the leader wants. A managers job then is to provide control, monitor the progress and give suggestions along the way, making sure that everything is running smoothly and according to the strategy. He is in charge of making sure that the vision that the leader has gets fulfilled, and the job is done in a way that is profitable to the company.
The way they achieve those goals and have the authority over their subordinates is through power. There are two main types of power: Position Power, possessed by a good manager and Personal Power, possessed by a good leader. Position power comes from the organization and the standards that it imposes on the hierarchy. This power is one of the most powerful tools in a managers disposal. The three forms of this power are Legitimate, Reward and Coercive. Legitimate power is very basic and comes from the understanding that a supervisor has the authority over his subordinates. This power is undisputable and is understood by all employees, as long as the company has a well-defined hierarchy. For example, if a new regional manager is appointed, it is assumed that the factory staff understands that he is in charge and if he tells them to do something, they have to do it.
Reward power comes from the managers ability to give out rewards for good performance, in the form of yearly bonuses or pay increases. For example, if a managers team beat the annual profit estimate, they may receive an end-of-year bonus from their boss, which will act as an encouraging factor for them to try even harder the following year. That promotes the managers overall power even further.
Coercive power is the opposite of reward power and comes from the managers ability to punish people for bad performance. If a managers team didnt perform as well as they could have, the manager is in the position to punish them by not giving them an annual bonus, or leaving negative feedback in their file, decreasing their chances for promotion or finding a better job. The use of this power can have a negative effect on the manager, as he could be perceived by his employees as a tyrant, which doesnt leave much opportunity to establish personal relationships with his team.
Personal Power is the other type of power and its two forms include Expert Power and Referent Power. Personal power is a powerful tool at a leaders disposal and if used wisely can produce great results. It promotes respect, admiration and caring from the subordinates and establishes the leader in a company. Expert power comes from a leaders knowledge or skill in the area that he is working in. The source of this power comes from the employees understanding that the leader has superior knowledge on the subject, therefore is worth listening to and following. For example, if a leader of a car manufacturer is an expert mechanic and proposes a new modification to one of the cars, his power will be undisputed because his team understands that he knows what hes talking about.
The other power in a leaders disposal is referent power which results from a leaders personality and his attitude towards his subordinates. The biggest and most desirable outcome of this form of power is subordinate commitment. That means that there is a strong admiration and respect for the leader and his decisions and the employees are willing to work extra to achieve the given goal. For a manager and leader alike, understanding and using these powers means being effective and leading the business to prosperity and profits.
To further understand what makes a difference in leadership, it is important to acknowledge the two types of leaders: Autocratic and Democratic. An autocratic leader relies mostly on his own knowledge and judgment and tells people exactly what he wants them to do. He centralizes authority around himself and uses position power to enforce his rules. He sets clear deadlines and makes sure that everyone does their work exactly how he wants them to. In some situations, this approach works best. The other leadership style is democratic, which is more lenient and promotes empowerment and freedom for employees. This style promotes creativity of the subordinates and in many cases makes them feel more like a big part of the business, making a change, as opposed to just someone following strict orders. It encourages participation, and the leaders position is more like a guide than a boss. He gives the destination and its up to his subordinates to decide which route to take to get there. There is an ongoing debate which of these styles is better. As in many business related issues, there is no right answer, but for a give situation one of
3, I prefer the political style of this approach to the more popular, but more conservative, approach. I tend to favor the Democratic Leadership style, because it makes leaders more responsive, in no way diminishes confidence in the leadership. The political leadership style (not to be confused with the more conservative, but more flexible) tends to emphasize leadership in more general terms. And as in many business related topics, there isn’t necessarily some one-size-fits-all approach to leadership. The only way to achieve success in a business organization is to practice a successful, professional approach to leadership. That process of development will involve several years of training, development of a specific team, and a high value for money for the most part. You, your team, and your employees will all have different skills and skillset from one to more. The same goes for this style of organization. For example, you would develop a very clear strategy of building a solid, successful team. A well-designed, well-researched, well-coordinated team will be able to do so. You would be developing clear, consistent, competitive leadership and will work hard on building the right teams. It might be hard to get a good working team who likes you, but you will find yourselves. A well-trained leaders style for my customers has some serious advantages in this regard. First, because it is simple, reliable, easy, and effective in the long term and in the personal sense it actually helps them build a winning team. Another good advantage is that it offers flexibility of planning, building, and delivering products on time rather than just making assumptions in advance. A successful leader can easily adjust his or her plan in a few months and work it out in the real world before it gets out of hand. A successful company can do this by employing a number of people with experience who are highly effective in many different fields but who do not have a clear grasp of leadership, including how to lead. This type of organization provides a platform for the future and has strong leadership and management skills which are essential for success. An organization without a strong leadership style for now is much less likely to succeed in the long run. One of the main advantages of a successful business is the chance at success. This style of organization, which is focused on creating an efficient structure to increase your income streams and thus your employees’ ability to grow into high-value companies, gives business owners the opportunity to focus on their business goals more and be more flexible with regard to what direction they would like to go about succeeding. There is only so far it can take a business. This style of organization is also great for managing some of the most important financial problems facing us today, such as the collapse of our housing, the lack of affordable housing, unemployment, consumer frustration, and the growing problems in the US economy. I recommend taking this style of organization for a spin, but I suggest you focus on it when planning for your business as well. A successful leader is always looking for work and having a passion for business. Whether you are just starting out, or you just start out on a budget, you have many opportunities in which a leader or leadership style of leadership can bring you success.