Learning objectives:
1. What is leadership?
2. What is management?
3. What are the features of leadership?
4. What are the features of management?
If you ask ten people to describe leadership you will get ten deferent answers. This article is just some of my ideas about leadership. Some may seem unconventional.
What is leadership?
If you ask 10 business experts or motivational speakers to describe leadership you will get 10 different answers. Like beauty, leadership is in the eye of the beholder. Leadership is a method of managing a group of people. In our discussion it will be leading employees using a specific method.
What is management?
Again there are many different definitions of management. Management can involve directing people and resources. There are many different philosophies and management styles such as X, Y, and MBO (management by objective.)
What is the difference between leadership and management?
In my view, management is getting a group of employees to do what you want, to comply by using negative methods. Do this task or…….there is an element of fear in this method. Leadership on the other hand is a method of getting employees to accomplish a task by using incentives and loyalty. Leadership gets the employees to want to do the tasks because of wanting to, a positive motivation.
Being a leader sometimes pisses people off.
A good leader is able to speak his or her mind regardless of the people offended. Leaders don’t procrastinate doing unpleasant thing including confronting.
Being a leader means making him or her self available to employees. They have an open door policy and encourage upward flow of information. This makes it easy for employees to bring problems to the leader.
A leader doesn’t let the credentials and standing of experts change all his methods. You must listen to suggestions and see if they apply to his business. Just because they have letters after their names doesn’t mean they are always right.
Attention to detail is a key to being a great leader.
One of the biggest problems owners of businesses have is staying up with details. Go ahead and delegate to others, but keep an eye on the details.
It’ easier to get forgiveness than permission.
We’ve all heard that phrase but in reality it is a good strategy. Of course you need to use some judgment. Followers of a leader want to see decisiveness. When in doubt, act. Easier to get forgiveness than permission.
In hiring leaders put more value importance on who a person is and what they can do rather than what’s on their resume, and where they have worked. A leader wants to know what that person can do now for the company. What is the quality of his or her character?
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