Report on Leadership

25th September 2015

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Executive Summary

The purpose of this report is to identify and explain the differences and similarities between a
Leader and a Manager? Reading the article by John Kotter on leadership and reviewing three
academic resources. The results indicate that both leadership and management involve decisions
that need to be done, ensuring that the work gets done. The tasks for each system is different. The
report concludes that leaders have people following them while managers have people work for
them. It is recommended that companies identify and develop the talent that they require.

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 Table of Contents

1. Cover Page 1
2. Title Page 2
3. Executive Summary 3
4. Table of Contents 4
5. Introduction 5
5.1 Differences and similarities of a leader and a manager
5.2 Leader and justification 7
5.3 Planning and Organizing skills 11
6. Conclusion 8
7. Recommendations 9
8. References 10

9. Appendix 1 11

10. Appendix 2 12

11. Appendix 3 13

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Introduction

According to John Kotter, “Management and Leadership both involve deciding what needs to be
done, creating networks of people to accomplish the agenda, and ensuring that the work actually
gets done. Their work is complementary, but each system of action goes about the tasks in
different ways”. (Kotter, 2001) Differences and similarities of a leader and a manager.

Leaders and Managers

A Leader – Differences – Is about coping with change, coping with complexity and coping with
change – shape the characteristic activities of management and leadership. A leadership is about
coping with change.
Perhaps the greatest separation between management and leadership is that leaders do not have
to hold a management position. That is, a person can become a leader without a formal title. Any
individual can become a leader because the basis of leadership is on the personal qualities of the
leader. People are willing to follow the leader because of who he or she is and what the leader
stands for, not because they have to due to the authority bestowed onto him or her by the
organization. The leader will show passion and personal investment in the success of his or her
followers reaching their goals, which may be different from organizational goals. (Scouller &
Chapman , 2011-14)

A leader has no formal, tangible power over their followers. Power is awarded to the leader on a
temporary basis and is contingent upon the leader's ability to continue to motivate and inspire
followership. Notice the shift in terminology here: managers have subordinates, while leaders
have followers. Subordinates do not have a choice but to listen to the demands and wishes of
their managers, but following is (and always will be) a voluntary choice for those who follow a
leader. Those who no longer wish to follow the leader will simply stop. That is, if an employee
initially sees his or her manager as a leader and eventually ceases to be inspired by that manager,
the employee will still obey the manager, but only because the employee is required to do so, not
because he or she wants to. (Robbins, 2002)

Leadership is about effectiveness through trust, inspiration and people. Leaders often challenge
the status quo that managers spend much of their time upholding to bring innovation to
organizations. Leadership is visionary, change-savvy, creative, agile and adaptive. Managers are
concerned with the bottom line, while leaders spend time looking at the horizon. ( Management
vs. Leadership: The Difference Between a Manager & Leader - Video & Lesson Transcript |
Study.com , 2015)

Management – Is about coping with complexity. Its practices and procedures are a large
response to the most significant developments of the twentieth century. Good management brings
order and consistency to the quality and profitability of products.
Management ensures plan accomplishment by controlling and problem solving – monitoring
reports, meetings, and other tools; planning and organizing to solve problems. Leadership,
achieving a vision requires motivating and inspiring – keeping people moving into the right
direction.
(Kotter, 2001)
Managers usually have people whose output they are responsible for. They have position and
authority over their followers. Alternatively, following a leader is usually a voluntary activity.
Leadership is often situational – rather than positional. The right person in the right place at the
right time to lead his troops forward.

The leader must know the business better than the manager and in a different way. Grasping the
essential facts determining the past and present trends in the business, to generate vision and
strategies to bring about the business future.

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Effective leaders ask questions, probing all levels of information. Leaders base their visions to
others, the main differences between leaders and managers are found at the extremes: poor
leaders are despots, while poor managers are bureaucrats. Leadership is a human process and
management is a process resource allocation, both have their place and managers must also
perform as leaders. All first class - managers turn out to have great leadership abilities.
(Essays, 2013)
A manager is a person in an organization who is responsible for carrying out the four functions of
management, including planning, organizing, leading and controlling. You will notice that one of
the functions is leadership, so you might ask yourself if it would be safe to assume that all
managers are leaders. Theoretically, yes - all managers would be leaders if (and this is a big 'if')
they effectively carry out their leadership responsibilities to communicate, motivate, inspire and
encourage employees towards a higher level of productivity. However, not all managers are
leaders simply because not all managers can do all of those items just listed. An employee will
follow the directions of a manager for how to perform a job because they have to, but an employee
will voluntarily follow the directions of a leader because they believe in who they are as a person,
what they stand for and for the manner in which they are inspired by their leader. A manager
becomes a manager by virtue of their position, and subordinates will follow the manager because
of his or her job description and title.

Because managers are responsible for carrying out the four functions of management, their
primary concern is to accomplish organizational goals. Managers get paid to get things done in
organizations. As such, the manager is accountable for themselves as well as the behaviour and
performance of his or her employees. A manager has the authority and power to hire, promote,
discipline and fire employees based on those behaviours and performance. Management is about
efficiency and getting results though systems, processes, procedures, controls and structure.
( Management vs. Leadership: The Difference Between a Manager & Leader - Video & Lesson
Transcript | Study.com , 2015)

The difference between leadership and management can be illustrated by considering instances
when there is one without the other. Leadership without management sets a direction or vision
that others follow, without considering how the new direction is going to be achieved. Other
people then have to work hard in the trail that is left behind, picking up the pieces and making it
work.

In the example of The Lord of the Rings, at the council of Elrond, there is an argument about how
they should proceed. Frodo Baggins rescues the council from the conflict by taking responsibility
for destroying the ring. He sets a direction, but has no idea how to go about it. During the quest,
most of the management of the group comes from others - particularly Gandalf and Aragorn.

There can be leaders who don’t manage in the workplace. For example, an entrepreneur might
grow a business by networking, building relationships, and generating ideas for new products.
However, he/she might also rely on a deputy - e.g. a factory manager - to ensure the right staff
are recruited, products or services are produced, and the business is delivered. (Leadership
without Management, 2015).

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 Leader and justification

My preferred leader would be Julia Gillard. She is a great negotiator, charismatic, loud, self-
assured and able to deliver quick decisions. Planning, organizing, leading & controlling, Julia
Gillard showed all of these qualities. Under her plans, thousands of vocational education and
training students would no longer have to pay upfront fees, while others would be guaranteed a
significant fee subsidy of up to $7800.”
She said students studying foundation and entry-level courses for technical and service sector
areas such as health, hospitality, business, communications, construction and transport would be
given access to HECS-style loans - a move revealed in The Australian last week.

“I want the kids who learn these vital skills to have the same right to a low-cost loan as kids who
study economics or law,” she said.

“Because millions of Australians will need new skills to make the most of the new Australian
economy we are building.” (Julia Gillard targets skills in plan to reform vocational education and
training)

Julia Gillard was well organized in control of what she was doing.

Here’s some of the leadership lessons Halbert says women can learn from the PM:

 Prioritize time for key relationships:

Gillard suffered from thinking getting on with the job was enough. Leaders must make time to
develop authentic relationships with their key customers, suppliers and employees.
 Be courageous enough to reveal the real you:
If those you are trying to influence the most don’t really know who you are as a person, you will
never succeed. The ability to demonstrate your values, ethics and emotion can be a real asset.
 Authentic leadership is absolutely necessary:
The world’s best leaders are those we know will stand up for what they hold dear, regardless of
opinion polls.
 As a woman it’s okay to be a feminine leader:
One of Gillard’s biggest downfalls has been that she’s displayed very little warmth and empathy
and many have commented that she dresses and speaks in a masculine manner. There is great
power in being feminine in a male dominated world.
 To be ultimately successful you must be true to yourself:
Many women try to be something that others want them to be. The greatest power comes being
yourself.

According to Halbert, Gillard was applauded after her performance at a press conference last
week when Kevin Rudd first resigned as Foreign Minister, “because it’s one of the first times she
presented passionately and spoke with conviction.”
“She has clearly shown this side of herself to her own party where she has earned their trust and
confidence. She hasn’t done the same with the Australian people, which was Mr. Rudd’s
strength,” she added. (Lessons in leadership from Julia Gillard, 2015)

"I am truly honoured to lead this country which I love. I am utterly committed to the service of our
people ... I asked my colleagues to make a leadership change ... because I believed that a good
government was losing its way."
-- Julia Gillard on June 24, 2010, after Mr. Rudd opted out of the leadership ballot, effectively
handing MS Gillard the leadership and prime minister ship
"There will be some days I delight you, some days I disappoint you. On every day I will be working
my absolute hardest for you."
-- MS Gillard in her first press conference after winning the top job, June 24, 2010 (Corporation,
2011)

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Conclusion

Management is about getting things done. Leadership is about achieving goals by creating a
direction for a business and inspiring employees to take initiative and make the right decisions.

Top managers need the skills to motivate, lead and influence others. Top manager’s aims to
employ people who can take on a leadership role and help to grow the business for the longer
term. Its management and training programmers help to provide employees with the skills
necessary to others.

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Recommendations

Aiming to improve your management skills and be a leader, your task requires devotion. To have
great management skills, you don’t need to re-invent the wheel, nor do you need to read every
management book ever published. Instead, focus on the key skills that great leaders share.

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References

Management vs. Leadership: The Difference Between a Manager & Leader - Video & Lesson Transcript |
Study.com . (2015). Management vs. Leadership: The Difference Between a Manager & Leader.
Corporation, A. B. (2011). Julia Gillard's year in quotes. doi:http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-06-24/julia-
gillards-year-in-quotes/2769610
Essays, U. (2013). Similarities And Differences Of A Leader And A Manager Management. UK Essays, 8.
Julia Gillard targets skills in plan to reform vocational education and training. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillard-targets-skills-in-plan-to-reform-
vocational-education-and-training/story-fn59niix-1226259569163
Kotter, J. P. (2001). What Leaders Really Do. Harvard Business Review, 13.
Leadership without Management. (2015). Retrieved from teamtechnology:
http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/leadership/management/leadership-ex-management/
Lessons in leadership from Julia Gillard. (2015). DynamicBusiness. Retrieved from
http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/women-in-business/lessons-in-leadership-from-julia-gillard-
28022012.html
Robbins, S. (2002). The Difference Between Managing and Leading . Entrepreneur , 3.
Scouller, J., & Chapman , A. (2011-14). leadership models, philosophies, styles - definitions, descriptions,
terminology . businessballs.com, 25.

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 Appendix 1 Planning and organizing skills

The planning & organizing I took in doing this assignment were:

Planning:

1. Read John Kotter on Leadership, and made my own conclusions.

2. Read several academic journals about leaders & managers online
3. Read Management, Fourth Asia Pacific Edition, Part 5 Leading, Chapter 15 Leadership
versus Management page 555
4. Spoke to my manager at work about the differences of leaders and managers and came
to my own conclusions.
5. Studied the PowerPoint slides on management principles weeks 1 - 11

Organizing

1. Placed the main importance of leaders and managers into their main categories.
2. I organized the tasks I needed to study by reading in a timely manner each day and
setting study goals
3. Organized my study notes in relations to leaders and managers, by dates and times I
studied.
4. Organized what I read on leaders into separate notes, organized what I read on
managers also on separate study notes.
5. The resources I found on leaders and managers I grouped into several categories that
were important, and not so important.

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 Appendix 2 Applying the concepts

While planning, the managers must:

1. Form a SWOT analysis

2. Develop forecasts (both qualitative and quantitative in nature)
3. Analyze competition
4. Establish goals and objectives
5. Goal: broad, long range target or aim
6. Objective: A specific, short range target or aim

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 Appendix 3 Develop action plans

Organizing: The process of arranging resources to carry out the organisation’s plans.

Management Pyramid:

Top Managers: Those at the highest level of the organisation’s management hierarchy; they are

Responsible for setting strategic goals, and they have the most power and responsibility in the
organisation.

Middle Managers: Develop plans to implement the goals of top managers and coordinate the

Work of first line managers.

First Line Managers: At the lowest level of the managerial hierarchy, they supervise the

Operating employees and implement the plans set at the higher management levels.

Team leaders must:

1. Define your team’s current responsibilities. Make note of what skill sets are utilized to
make the team work now.
2. Define the tasks that the team will be responsible for a year from now. Make note of the
skill sets that will be needed.
3. Take an inventory of the team members and the skills that they have. Make note of any
dormant skills that team members have the potential to enhance and bring to the group.
4. Compare the tasks in step one and step two with the skills that your team has. Are there
any gaps? Do you have back-up for each person? Where can cross functional roles help
provide redundancy?
5. Consider readjusting the team. Are there areas that need development? How quickly do
they need to be developed? What capabilities should you look for in seeking new
members?

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