Manager and leader..
Most of us might have heard of these two kinds of persons when it comes to professional work, or simply when we are about to work with other people to get things done and achieve the goal. Many people mistake them similar since most people perceive both managers and leaders are put in the high position of a group or an organisations...
Before we jump into the definition, let me provide you two illustration you might encounter in your life to figure them out by yourself;
- First, you are working in a company or contributing to an organisation. You will learn the culture, the staffs, your job desk, and of course the organisation or company structure. When we take a look into the organisation structure, you will notice your positions, staffs, and the higher position including manager and CEO. You will receive tons of tasks with cetrain rules, rewards and punishments regarding your task and improvements during working. The manajer would not know that your opinions and feelings, as long you work well, you won't get fired.
- Second, when you are in a team or working in a division in your organisation, you will also learn more about each individual (teammate), the structure, and the culture of your organisations. The structure might have the highest position which you consider them as the head of division or manager or boss as well, but you also can consider them as your leader of your team. Your leader will guide and lead you and also each members to share together's goals and objectives. You are also being encouraged by rewards or punishments and given trusts and proactive to the team in order to achieve not only goals and objectives, but also building sense of bonding as their long term goals.
Team and organisation might have similar form of individuals who share the same concern and goals. However, team focuses on more specific objectives, usually based on their division job desk. Both of the situation might have the similar way when it comes to professional works but we also can see that both are different when we are conducting project that needs teamwork.
Social and professional (workplace) hierachy status might be applied to both leaders and managers since people both obey them. People can obey managers whether they are scared or truly respect, or maybe because they are given a short term reward, such as salary and bonus, depending on their position. A manager might are in the higher position than their subordinates. A manager could be a leader or maybe just a person who is bossing around telling people to do stuffs for himself or for the company. In other words, not all managers are leaders. So, what differs them from a leader?
There are basic difference between a leader and a manager that proves that managers are not the leaders which people will encounter them in the future when you are in school, daily life, and in a workplace.
First, a leader builds the vision, but a manager builds the mission. A leader generally has their vision , they see how they can achieve the objectives and long term goals, but also able to inspire the others to make it into reality. A leader also think way forward, they think about the consequences and more proactive compared to others. They know that a team that work well together can give them the better result than the individuals who work by themselves without thinking the other's feeling. There are many kinds of leadership styles, proposed by Daniel Goleman (2000) in his article "Leadership that Gets Results" which are authoritarian, paternalistic, democratic, Laissez-faire, and transactional. We can see them in presidential election, where every president candidates will oppose their campaign and people can see how the president they will choose determine their country's future because of their leadership style.
When we are talking about worrying about others feeling and opinion, somehow a member whose opinions and aspirations got ignored tend to follow their majority or do their things by themselves, which is mostly encountered when we are conducting a group task. According to the Great Man theory, leaders are made not born (Carlyle, 1840). A true leader has their way to encourage them and made them appreciated at the same time since they are more focused on how they lead, measure, and achieve a certain goal. However, the managers are mostly task oriented and making sure how the goals are achieved.
A leader innovate, Managers keep the culture (of the workplace/company). A leader can see the potential in every situation that encourage them to innovate for the future outcomes, whether they add the new improvements or innovation, or they just turned the situation by themselves (table turn). They do understand that innovating would change the system, or has the bigger impact to them yet they still will do it if they believe it is for the sake of an organisation or a company. Managers also able to innovate, however changing the system if there is any lacking and supporting the structure for the better outcome without doing much change. Managers will keep the same culture since they are worried and afraid to take a risk that changing too much will result in chaos in a company, eventhough the time and situation may forced them to.
When it comes to being original, leaders have their own unique way to express themselves. They realise that along with their ability, and work according to their original way of thinking and mindset that they believe it would be a great for all. Leaders tend to be more comfortable with their own selves and will be a spotlight in their own team since they show what they really are. While so called- leadersmanagers tend to follow the skills and the personality they have learned from other people, adopting the leadership style, not building their own character. A leader will risk themselves and try their crazy ideas with their encouraged convinced teammates. They like to try something that others haven't experienced before. Managers know how to control the risk without taking it fully. Both might know that failure is a part of their journey. However, a true leader will think more that a failure is a way to reach a success. Managers will minimise the risk and tend to avoid everything that is too risky for themselves. Everyone has their own potential to become a leader, being leader is actually much easier than being a manager aince it does not require too much than being a manager.