Essay on Leaders vs Managers

Words: 1238
Pages: 5

Leaders Vs Managers
Steven Powell
MGT 380
Ms. Alysia Young
July 12, 2010

There is the age old question of what is the difference between a manager and a leader? Most people will say that you can’t be a manager without being a leader. In this paper, I will discuss in detail, what is it that leaders and managers do, can leaders and managers be one in the same, as well as, explain the difference between managers and leaders. Most successful businesses usually consisted of a team of successful managers. Note that in order to be a manager it does not require a person to be a leader. Managers often ask your "how" and "who" questions in an organization. Managers are about appealing to the head through planning,
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Although, a leader and manager do not need to be one and the same, I do think that in order to be an effective manager one need to have some leadership skills. Some people believe that just because a person is a manager that it makes them a leader I think that this truly depends upon the situation or the position that they hold. Although managing and leading are in the same family, they are totally different. Managers get results and they are efficient. Then again, efficiency does not mean one is always effective. When a business is uneven with too many managers and too few leaders, it is proficient at doing the work right. However, it does not do the right things because a lacks of leadership. As a result, reality sets in as the company puts more focus on process than vision. I have known managers who were terrible leaders! They could plan, execute, and direct others, but no one was motivated to do their best for them or for the company. These managers did not have a clear direction of what they wanted to accomplish and staff in their companies display a “going through the motions” quality to their work. So you can see, just because a person is a manager doesn’t mean that he or she is a leader. There several different between being a leader and being a manager. The major differences between leaders and managers are “leaders have willing followers and managers get result through their