Michael F Staley's Igniting the Leader Within - Book Report/Review Example

The fast response and emergency management depends upon and is influenced by effective management solutions and leadership strategies. Management and leadership are concerned with setting goals, establishing policies and programs, and implementing business action for the entire firm. Its major tasks are to translate consumer wants and needs, actual and potential, into profitable products and services that the company is capable of producing; to cultivate markets to support these products; and to program the distribution activities necessary to reach the markets.

Following Staley, management is not merely a limited specialized activity of the business, but rather a perspective for the total management team. It does not function as a separate entity in the business, nor is it more important than any other primary activity, such as manufacturing or finance, yet through actual and potential sales it does establish constraints within which the other activities must be performed. It reflects an integrated and coordinated approach to the management of organizational activity, and the development of total systems of business action that recognize the market as the focal point of business.

Great leaders have the gift for inspiring and motivating people; they have vision and lift the spirit of people to accomplish great ends. The release of human possibilities is a basic leadership goal. However, there is also a dark side of leadership. It is important to distinguish moral and just leadership from the character of despots who, by definition, are effective leaders if they accomplish their goals through persuasion (Carlopio et al 2005). Management, like leadership, is ethically neutral.

Managers mobilize and allocate resources; they staff and ensure the continuing vitality of the team; they create and maintain appropriate procedures. They also direct, delegate, and coordinate, and they provide a system of incentives to motivate and encourage productive behavior. A company officer in the fire department should recognize that effective managers also establish reporting systems, perform evaluations, and assign accountability. Common to both managers and leaders is the focus on the results they produce, which are based on the goals they pursue.

As they labor to bring about a result, shared values, goals. Managers and leaders call for the kind of effort, restraint, drive, and discipline that result in great performance. The traditional definitions of management and leadership have focused on and described the management process. What a manager or leader does is important, but descriptions do not address the function or purpose of management. The purpose of management is to produce positive results. Management is more than leading people.

Indeed, it has many more components. Management is also routine administration, supervision, and knowledge of procedures, rules, and regulations; for instance, it requires negotiation techniques, cost control, and legal responsibilities. An important part of management is a knowledge and understanding of process and procedures, but a new definition should focus on the results to be achieved. Managerial success is measured by achievement, not by the process used to