To be a leader. To be a manager. When we talk about those who carry out various managerial tasks in an organisation, we often equate the two terms. Basically, leadership is one of the tasks performed by a manager and therefore comes under an umbrella term of management. But we can also talk about “predominantly managerial” or “predominantly leadership” tasks and duties, where difference between them is quite significant.
Management process
Let’s start with the basics to see where management “happens” in the overall process of directing organisation’s activities. Management process as a phrase means what actions are involved in performing the managerial role. An outline of this began in 1917 when Henri Fayol wrote a document originally entitled Administration industrielle et générale. Developing further from this starting point set by Fayol, the management process is now considered to have four parts:
- Process begins with planning. Its first step is formulation of a purpose for which an organisation exists and does its activities. From this emerges a statement that communicates why we work and act which is called the mission statement. Next element is second of two foundations of an organisation: the vision. This statement outlines a future image of an organisation. It shows where we are going or communicates what we want to create. Last of the three fundamental elements and last essential result of planning phase, is strategy. It communicates how we will achieve our vision, how we will realise our purpose and how we will sustain our success.
- Second part of a management process is organising. This involves defining roles (and jobs). Each role has job tasks, communication tasks, an area of responsibility and an area of power. The organisation therefore defines and describes all roles, and in doing so defines relationships between them. This is what constitutes the so-called organisational structure. It consists of four layers: technical layer (what sort of work any given role has to do and who does that role hand over its results to), communication layer (what, to whom, and how information is communicated or transmitted), power or authority layer (who decides what) and responsibility or motivation layer (who is held accountable for what). Determining all this content defines the system of work.
- Third part of the process is leadership. It means implementing the plans set and ensuring that organisational structure is properly implemented. Leading thus requires knowledge of all these elements. It also means creating the necessary understanding among all members of an organisation and ensuring that objectives defined are followed. Day-to-day leadership is therefore mostly about working with people, and good quality work requires skills in working with people. It is important to know those you are leading, to be aware of what motivates them, what talents they have, how they think, what values and beliefs guide them, and so on. As we will see in future articles, a leader helps followers or colleagues to grow personally and professionally and to achieve their work goals.
- Managerial process is completed by fourth part which is control. The term used is rather traditional, as it is well known that the exercise of control can have a negative impact on motivation and creativity at work. An essence of this task is to provide feedback that enables good performance of an organisation and its parts, and enables everyone to correct or adjust that performance if such necessity is found. Whereas in a traditional organisation this flow of information is largely filled by commands (e.g. a command to do a certain activity differently), in an agile organisation we are moving more towards providing information (or simply facilitating the provision of information) on the basis of which an individual or a department can make the necessary corrections.
Tasks of a leader and tasks of a manager
You can see from content presented that a role “to lead” is in fact quite specific. It is about implementing what we have planned and organised through working with people. This is what organisations need from a leader, or from leadership as an organisational role.
Leadership is in essence working with people. It requires softer skills in psycho-social area and skills in building and nurturing relationships, communication, etc. So, to use a metaphor, the leader is often referred to as ‘a soul’ of a given community.
A manager, on the other hand, is a ‘head’. It is the one who conceives a whole system by which an organisation will operate. He or she has to figure out what objectives are needed, what way of working, what values should be emphasised and rewarded, etc. A manager is an analyst who, on the basis of information and by playing out various possible challenges, draws up the “rules of the game” for a given system and therefore creates a platform on which everyone will then perform and do their work.
Conclusion
In this paper we have made one important distinction between the two roles. It is important because it points to two parts that are very different from each other. On the one hand, rationality, and on the other, humanity. Both make a specific contribution and both are indispensable to the organisation.
Paradim 