A Good Leader Will Always Make a Good Manager - Assignment Example

A good leader will always make a good manager Name and ID Course Name & Code Instructor’s Name 13th January 2009 Vision and mission statements usually guide the operations of an organisation towards achieving set goals. Different organisational requirements brings forth employees with different ideologies and philosophies that shapes their behaviours and capabilities towards achieving specified goals that either is improvement in revenue or increase in profits (Lewis, 2004). To ensure the goals and objectives of an organisation are achieved, it is important for leaders in an organisation to ensure that they effectively manage these organisations, and thus illustrate characteristics of good leadership. This means that the ideologies and internal culture of an organisation should be understood by the leaders to ensure that employees are motivated towards achieving results (Zenger & Folkman, 2002). In certain circumstances, some leaders may be provided with a chance to manage the organisation but sometimes the followers may not be comfortable with the leader, the followers may not likely appreciate influence of the leader, and thus some duties may be partially fulfilled. This means that it is important to ensure that views, characteristics and strategies that the leader has should balance with mission and vision requirements of the organisation. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyse the statement “A good leader will always make a good manager” discussing it critically through use of theories, frameworks and examples. Individual and teams are required to ensure that certain duties are fulfilled. However, in most circumstances, these individuals or teams possess different characters and internal focus, and hence a leader should ensure that the differences and similarities are balanced towards achieving their goals. This means that the leader will only provide guidelines and directions that will help their followers to form teams that are strong and positioned towards achieving specified organisational goals. Generally, it means that a leader should be able to influence, persuade, and bring different individuals into a coherent form that will create an environment that the organisational requirements will be achieved (Bell, 1996). Some of the virtues of a good leader include negation skills, listening skills, communication and organisation capabilities that ensure that effective teams that are able to win are formed. Generally, a leader should not be a barrier to achieving organisational goals. In the same case, managers are required to ensure that the operations of an organisation are effective and posed towards achieving set goals. The role of a manager is to guide and determine whether the tasks have been effectively completed as per the laid down criteria. Generally, merging and balancing differences and similarities equates a good leader to a good manager, and thus both can change places. Thus, good leaders that are equated to good managers should not be barriers to organisational/institutional development (Marquis & Huston, 2008). Moreover, a good leader should be able to listen and appreciate different views that can be used to solve certain and this means that a good leader should be versatile. Additionally, a good leader should possess individual qualities that can be emulated by the followers or employees such as etiquette, punctuality, trustworthiness, and courtesy (Gorman, 2003). Good leaders possessing these qualities ensures that directives and rules can be followed and provides means to prevent inter and intra personal conflicts. Generally, it means that personal qualities are core in ensuring leaders become role models to the followers, and their views can be followed. Effective leaders should understand the importance of boosting and motivating employees/followers. This means that good leaders should understand that motivated followers usually improve on organisational performance (Gorman, 2003). Motivation is an important fundamental in directing the employees to achieve their requirements, and good leaders should formulate appropriate motivational strategies that will ensure the morale of each individual is boosted. Usually, there are two motivational strategies either intrinsic or extrinsic, which mean that good leaders should differentiate them and utilise the most appropriate branch of motivation in motivating specific individual or teams. Thus, good leaders are supposed to balance between the requirements of personal goals, organisation goals and employees in ensuring that organisations achieves its goals that will translate in sustainability of the organisation (Bell, 1996). Good managers understand the importance of motivation, and they usually introduce different strategies to ensure that the employees are determined to accomplish certain tasks. Good managers employ different approaches to ensure that the morale of employees is boosted towards fulfilling the requirements of an organisation, and achieving its requirements. This means that the role of good leaders in motivating the employees is same as the role that is played by good managers in motivating their employees (Nye, 2008). Generally, good leaders are an investment to any organisation. Good leadership, which ensures or creates value for the stakeholders, is important. Here, stakeholders may include shareholders, customers, employees and suppliers should be satisfied, and if the stakeholder is not satisfied, the organisation reputation may be spoilt (Lewis, 2004). This means that an effective leader should understand operating environment. Moreover, a good leader should understand what is happening, know when threats or opportunities occur, and formulate strategies that maximises on opportunities while ensuring that the impact of threats is adversely minimised. Hence, good leaders should be strategic analysers, employing historical data and information (i.e. either successful or poor strategies), which will form the underlying bedrock for future effective strategies. In most instances, the threats and opportunities are directly associated with micro and macro environmental conditions, good leaders develops interactions that ensures both of them are maximised (Zenger & Folkman, 2002). In the same way, good managers should maximise their experience and creativity to ensure that the stakeholders value is maximised. Good managers usually formulate strategies that are based on historical information minimising on threats and maximising on opportunities. Good managers understand when they are wrong, and they formulate appropriate strategies that will correct this, while exploring other means to improve on their opportunities. Good managers appreciate strategies that have been formulated based on actual information and approach that good leaders employ. Generally, since importance of strategies to both parties is immerse means that good leaders can become good managers (Marquis & Huston, 2008). Good leaders should understand that the aim of any organisation is to increase profits through maximising customer value. This generally means that good leaders should formulate and effectively implement winning strategies. Hence, a good leader should correlate between ‘whats’ and ‘hows’ of an organisation in ensuring that an organisation obtains the desired goals (Lewis, 2004). In many cases, the strategies that have been development may be good but implementation of these strategies may be poor, thus a good leader should ensure that the strategies are implemented effectively (Gorman, 2003). Thus, a good leader should define implementation process in phases and ensure that performance management is ensured. Good managers understand that implementation of strategies usually takes steps and each step should be completed exhaustively. Good managers follow the most appropriate means to ensure that the most is achieved from any strategy or policy the organisation employs (Bell, 1996). Formulating and implementing of organisational strategies is a factor that differentiates a good leader from a poor leader. Good leaders should ensure that any pitfalls is corrected when the strategies are been implemented, and they should know that even the most effective strategies may not be implemented flawlessly. This means that good leaders should understand imperfections are common within any kind of strategy, and hence systematic monitoring should be in place throughout the implementation. Nevertheless, in certain scenarios such as change in rules or legislations, a leader is supposed to alter the strategies, which means that the leader should keep behind his/her mind the original requirements (Bell, 1996). Thus, good leaders should understand frailty of strategic plans, understand that changes can be made anytime, and other times, superior strategies can be formulated. This also means that good leaders should be available to ensure that the stakeholders’ value is championed. The chances of success of any strategy are determined by the way the strategy is implemented and this is usually appreciated by good managers. Good managers are aware of fragility of any strategic requirement and usually employ means that ensures the entire process is fruitful (Marquis & Huston, 2008). Generally, good managers should never lose hope especially when a strategy fails, but be ready to correct the mistakes and use such experiences for future development of an organisation. Good managers usually understands that environmental requirements changes, business environment is not inert, thus they formulate strategies to counter or benefit from the changes. Thus, good leaders ensure that they formulate strategies that counter threats/changes, and approach that is championed by good managers (Zenger & Folkman, 2002). Good leaders should formulate and implement strategies that are beneficial to an organisation for long and short times; this ensures that duties and responsibilities are accomplished simultaneously. Environmental operation ensures that a good leader employ strategies that ensures that the organisation is sustainable and hence its prosperity (Gorman, 2003). Additionally, a good leader should understand the culture within the organisation and understand that individuals have different beliefs and assumptions, thus a good leader should minimise conflicts and develop means in which conflicts could be resolved (Zenger & Folkman, 2002). A good leader should champion effective communication since the leader will be updated on what is happening in the environment and thus will implement strategies that are important to the entire organisation. A good manager understands that strategies that are been formulated and implemented are for long terms. The success of an organisation can be determined by the type of strategies that are been implemented and means in which the strategies will be implemented. Good managers appreciate the importance of formulation and implementation of strategies (Bell, 1996). Generally, good leaders and good managers share same views and characteristics towards ensuring an organisation achieves its goals. A leader usually guides and assists followers to fulfil certain obligations while a manager ensures that certain obligations are fulfilled. In most instances, good leaders translate into good managers because they ensure welfare of employees is encouraged while fulfilling the requirements of an organisation. Good leaders usually become good managers because they have appreciated importance of motivation, formulation and implementation of strategies, and ensuring that the goals that have been set are achieved. Thus, the phrase “A good leader will always make a good manager” is true if only the leader does not change his/her behaviour when they become managers. References Bell, C. 1996. Managers as mentors: building partnerships for learning. New York: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Gorman, T. 2003. The complete idiot's guide to MBA basics. London: Alpha Books Publishers. Lewis J. 2004. Team-based project management. London: Beard Books Publishers. Marquis, B. & Huston, C. 2008. Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: theory and application. London: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Nye, J. 2008. The powers to lead. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Zenger, J. & Folkman, J. 2002. The extraordinary leader: turning good managers into great leaders. London: McGraw-Hill Professional. Read More