Organizations care
Organizations care a great deal about leadership because they desire to achieve their objectives. The desire for success leads organizations to search for managers that can employ proper leadership and managerial techniques (Cafferky, 2012). The question is how do these two things, management and leadership differ? The biggest difference between these two is that leaders have people that follow them, while managers have people that work for them. Two other important sub-differences also help to distinguish management and leadership from one another: Circles of influence versus circles of power and utilizing referent power vs legitimate power.
Just like managers have workers and leaders have followers, managers develop and enforce circles of power while leaders develop and maintain circles of influence (Nayar, 2013). Leaders are people that even individuals outside their sphere of professional influence come to them for advice and help. Leaders are more involved and tend to possess more referent power than managers. Referent power is the power of respect and influence. When followers look at a leader as wise and seek their advice, we say they have referent power. Managers tend to utilize legitimate power in order to get things done. Legitimate power is the power someone possesses due to their position within a professional hierarchy. A manager gives tasks and due to their position and legitimate power, their subordinates must carry out those tasks or risk negative professional consequences. While these two different kinds of leaders have their differences that are important to know, the techniques offered by both should be used by very leader. The key is to know the time and place to utilize either leadership or management techniques.
In every leadership or management position and technique, managers or other kinds of leaders should remember the words of Matthew 7:12, which tell us “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums the Law and the Prophets” (NIV). Being an effective leader or manager comes down to how you treat those around you and make difficult decisions. When determining how to approach a situation, most would benefit from reflecting on these words and understanding how to should affect their decision. Neither effective leadership or effective management are easy and without God’s help and guidance, they can be impossible.
References:
Cafferky, M. E. (2012). Management: A faith-based perspective. Boston: Person Education.
Nayar, V. (2013, August 02). Three Differences Between Managers and Leaders. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2013/08/
The Holy Bible: New International Version. (2014). Thomas Nelson.
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