Manager or Leader?

[AWA Training]

I have been reading an interesting book "Battlefield to Boardroom" by Ivan Yardley et al.

It distinguishes at many levels the difference between management and leadership. As business leaders yourselves, what are your views?

 

[billmccallum1957]

Too many people place too much emphasis on titles, a manager can be a leader and a leader can be a manager, but some managers can rule by intimidation, whereas a good leader will lead and/or manage by example.

A good leader/manager will allow others within the team to take control of their area of expertise, rather than direct activity.

But, as always, power corrupts and idiots get into managerial positions.

 

[FreebieBoy34]

A manager is only a distinctive title that is given to you at work, but having a quality of a leader will allow you to do great things beyond work...

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

A person that can inspire, encourage, influence coach , advise, make people feel more confident in what they are doing ,get things started and get things done is the person you need .
Any titles are waffle .Just pointless

 

[profitxchange]

Manager maintains the status quo leader moves things forward.

 

[Krystsina]

I expect managers to be leaders, and leadership is one of the basic skills that a person who would like to become a manager should have.

 

[The Byre]

I expect managers to be leaders, and leadership is one of the basic skills that a person who would like to become a manager should have.

That's all well and good, except that there is no such thing as a natural leader or even such a thing as 'leadership'. In the military, we were always told to show 'leadership qualities' and after years of leading some things and being lead in others, I have come to the conclusion, that the difference between a leader and a non-leader, is simple.

A leader is a person who knows where they are going and how to get there!

Five people need to get from A to B. Only one little eight-year-old girl knows the way. She is now the leader! If the other four refuse to accept her as the leader, they won't get to B.

Attend a major film shoot. The on-set leader is the director. Is he shouting? Is he commanding his crew? Is he shouting where the lights go? Is he behind the camera? Is he giving the actors their final directions?

No. Those tasks are usually done by others. Very often he is the quite guy or girl sitting in a corner, watching everybody else. But he or she pulls the whole thing together.

The real boss is the producer and that person(s) organises the whole thing, arranges and procures the finances and managers the whole army of staff, with the aid of assistant producers.

Under these people, come the dialogue coaches, set directors, casting directors, cinematographer, gaffer, best boys, head carpenters, fight directors, stunt directors, effects supervisors, pyrotechnicians, director of pictures, etc., each with a vision and each knowing where their task should take them and how to get there. Each a leader within their own field.

Sometimes I know what I am doing and where I am going and that makes me the leader. Sometimes I do not, in which case, if I am wise and want things to go smoothly, even if I own the company, I shut the F up and do what I am told.

 

[soundengineeruk]

A job title is a job title, it is what and how you accomplish things defines you from just having job title to earning the job title.

The person who has role needs to by inspiring, understanding, and have common sense. Me personally, a good person for the role knows the team, the dynamics and each team member strengths and weakness.

Someone said that "People don't leave jobs, they leave leaders". It does make me wonder why people do put the wrong people in job too only probably loose good people.