Discuss the differences between leadership and management. Is there a difference If so, how - Assignment Example

Difference between Management and Leadership al Affiliation) Management and leadership go hand in hand even though they do not refer to the same thing. Leadership may be a facet of management, but is distinguished from management in many aspects. Management involves the controlling and directing of a group of people, in most cases employees in an organization, for the main reason of harmonizing and coordinating them into achieving a predetermined goal. Leadership, on the other hand implies to the ability of a person to motivate, influence and empower other people to contribute towards the success and effectiveness of the organizations that they belong.

The managers in management tend to be under control, often rational and problem solvers. They put a lot of emphasis on the predetermined objectives, personnel, structures and availability of resources. The personalities of these kinds of people mostly seem to have strong will, persistence, intelligence and analysis. Leaders are often referred as mercurial and brilliant people who possess great charisma. Despite the fact that the leaders are private people and loners, they are usually comfortable of taking risks is it crazy or wild risks.

Most of the leaders have high levels of creativity and imagination. Leadership puts a lot of focus in leading people while management only concentrates at managing the people. Management is more of task oriented and concerned with results. Leadership is people oriented and puts its attention on achievements (Gunter, 2005). The approach towards tasks of the two methods of running an organization clearly differentiates them. Management creates policies, strategies, and methods that facilitate the combination of teams and ideas to enhance smooth running of operations.

They people through obtaining their views, principles, and values. They do this having in mind that the combination will decrease the inherent success and lead to success. Leadership, on the contrary, looks at the problems at a different angle and devises new and creative solutions. Due to their great charisma and intense commitment, they bring excitement, motivation, and focus to other people to come up with solutions and excel. In management the organizations are ran through styles such as dictatorial, transactional, authoritative, autocratic, democratic and consultative since power is got through formal authority and position.

This is quite different in leadership as it practices indulging styles such as Transformational, Participative and Consultative styles due to the charisma and influence they possess (Schermerhorn, 2005). Leaders have possessed leadership traits that make them successful in their leadership roles. Some of the basic leadership traits that leaders possess include; Emotional stability, Dominance and Enthusiasm. Emotional stability refers to the ability of leaders to overcome the frustrations and stress brought by sudden changes in the organization.

Dominance refers to the ability of leaders to be decisive and competitive to overcome the obstacles that come their way. Enthusiasm refers to the ability of leaders to be open to change by being active and responding quickly to them (Maxwell, 2002). A good example of the existence of leadership traits in an organization is how a director that possesses these skills would react to a change in the company’s performance. Instead of them running up and down to check the day to day operations of the organization which may not be the cause for this, they will do an analysis of the change.

They will examine market trends and the industry performance then is quick with a solution that can bring the company’s performance back to normal (Belasen & Frank, 2008).ReferencesBelasen, A., & Frank, N. (2008). Competing values leadership: quadrant roles and personality traits. Leadership & Org Development J, 29(2), 127-143. doi:10.1108/01437730810852489Gunter, H. (2005). Book Review: Leadership in Organizations. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 33(1), 128-129. doi:10.

1177/174114320503300110Maxwell, J. (2002). Leadership 101. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.Schermerhorn, J. (2005). Management. New York: J. Wiley.