Introduction:
When the thought comes to differentiate a leader and a manager, it is often difficult to divide based on the look, character, and work efficiency. Some invisible qualities which differentiates a leader and a manager discussed in this paper.
Points for discussion:
A manager in an organisation, manages, a project, give directions by coordinating with all the team members for successful implementation of thoughts of management. Where as a leader can influence others, to perform well to achieve the goals.
A leader must have several attributes like, he is self aware and he can prioritise personal development. He focus on development of others. He encourages strategic thinking, innovation and action with ethical mindset. Even they practice cross cultural communication.
Top qualities a leader should have:
- Emotional Intelligence
- Vision
- Inspiration
- Strategic and critical thinking
- Authenticity and self awareness
- Interpersonal communication
- Creativity and open mindedness
- Flexibility
- Responsibility and dependability
- Patience and Tenacity
- Continuous improvement
- Emotional Intelligence:
One quality that differentiates Leader and a Manager is Emotional intelligence. It is management of own emotions and understanding of emotions of others. IQ and EQ are a set of human brain thinking attributes which will be deciding the decision making of an individual. IQ will be the capacity of logical thinking where as EQ is all about emotions. 90% of top performers are having high level of Emotional Intelligence. EQ is one of the top skills to master and widely considered as indicator of professional as well as personal performance. Logics can be taught where as emotions shall be experienced. In banking it is most common we see managers, but some people influence others with their character & Qualities often we call them leaders. A leader has to develop himself with his own experiences and with his vision & wisdom create such an environment where more number of leaders taking birth.
- Vision
A leader can visualise a big picture of an organisation or team with in which he headed, based on the capabilities of team and what actually required to take the group to take up to such next position. What future he is going to create, is vision. It is a positive thinking of a person, to what extent he can contribute to the organisation, society and nation at large.
- Inspiration
Vision and inspiration are going on parallel lines, as it is equally important to have a vision and an ability to convey that vision to others, and get them excited about it. It lead to maintenance of a positive yet realistic presence within the organization helping team members to stay motivated and engaged, and remember what it is that they are working for.
It is a positive feeling, how people are reacting to the ideas of a leader, and is all about getting inspired from leader’s vision or ideology.
A leader must influence others, even without speaking with them, but because of his actions.
- Strategic & Critical Thinking
A leader will be able to critically analyse SWOT (Strength, weakness, opportunities, threats) analysis of the organisation, and necessarily intervene during actual requirements. He must be able to re align the resources’ for achieving the team or organisation’s objective. They will be having clear understanding of about the organisation and they will be able to cross correct the things under requirement.
He must analyse the strategies to achieve the desired out come and plan the tasks and executes the same.
- Interpersonal Communication
Communication is the ability to convey the message in such a way that others feels that it genuine. It does not always mean that he must be an extrovert or a people person to be a leader, but there are many excellent leaders who self identify themselves as introverts.
A good leader must be able to communicate with all the team members, and can boost the confidence in the fellow collegues to take the responsibilities.
He must be able to demonstrate empathy, engaging in active listening, and building meaningful working relationships with those around him, whether they are a peer or a direct report.
- Authenticity & Self-Awareness
One of the crucial ways to become a great leader is to be tone-apprehensive enough to understand your strengths and weaknesses, and to make an authentic leadership style that is true to who you’re and how you do your stylish work. You want to be the stylish possible leader you can be, not try to fit into earth set by someone differently. Try to embrace the effects that make you who you are, and that will naturally restate into you developing an authentic leadership style.
- Open-Mindedness & Creativity
Being a good leader means being open to new ideas, possibilities, and perspectives, and understanding that there is no” right” way to do effects. Leadership involves the knowledge that success comes with amenability to change how effects are done and to bring in fresh eyes to inspire new ideas, in addition to trying to suppose outside the box as much as possible. Leaders must be suitable to hear, observe, and be willing to change course when necessary.
- Flexibility
Leadership also means being adaptable and nimble when the situation calls for it. Nothing ever goes according to plan-whether you encounter minor roadblocks or large obstacles, you’ll need to be prepared to stop, reassess, and determine a new course of action. Good leaders will embrace the ever-changing nature of business and meet challenges with a flexible station-and be suitable to make inspire that same amenability to acclimatize in those around them.
- Responsibility & Dependability
One of the most important traits a leader can have is a sense of responsibility and dependability. This means displaying those traits in your individual work, but also demonstrating them in your relations with others. Your platoon members need to know that they can depend on you to take on your fair share of work and follow through, support them through tough times, and help them meet both participated and individual pretensions.
- Patience & Tenacity
A good leader knows how to take the long view, whether it’s of a strategy, a situation, or a thing. Being suitable to take on any bumps in the road and persist on without getting frustrated or defeated is crucial from small systems to commercial vision; tolerance is a particularity that’s essential to strong leadership.
- Continuous Improvement
True leaders know that perfection is a myth-there’s always room for enhancement on all situations, from the particular to the platoon to the overall association. They’ll always be willing to help platoon members find ways to develop new chops or ameliorate upon weakness, be suitable to identify and apply strategies for helping the association as a whole grow, and, maybe most importantly, be suitable to look inward and identify the areas they would like to work on-and also act on them.
The above mentioned attributes of a leader are only indicative not exhaustive. As discussed, a leader is a one with lot of qualities to lead the group in the desired group by co-ordinating the team, by developing so many leaders within the team.
Where as a manager is a one, who acts according to the specific task assigned to him. He could manage the things, in the desired direction to complete the task given him. A manager with leadership qualities can manage the things in a better way, like co-ordinating within the team, communicating the work, realigning the task, managing resources, finally achieving the goals set by management. A good manager is one who develops a work culture, by focussing on employee strengths, can handle pressures in a better way, and while ascertaining good career path for others.
Where as a leader can influence others, communicate positively, ready to face even tough situation, inspires the best in every individual with works along with him.
Emotional intelligence is nothing but, how we are managing emotions, may be ours or others. If a manager started managing his emotions or trying to influence others emotions, he is on the way to become a leader. As Rome’ was not built in a day, emotional balancing also an accumulated result of series of events happened around. Starting journey is important which will lead to destination. Hence leadership is by virtue of experience.
Conclusion:
Balancing of emotions will lead to management of situations without losing temper. A person who balances his emotions, win hearts of others and thereby he can influence others. A manager can be made, by giving trainings, where as leadership comes from experience. Experience may be his own or learning from experiences of others. In this paper an attempt was made to distinguish the characteristics of a leaders how different they are from a manager like, Vision, Inspiration, Strategic and critical thinking, Authenticity and self awareness, Interpersonal communication, Creativity and open mindedness, Flexibility, Responsibility and dependability, Patience and Tenacity, Continuous improvement etc.,
A manager and a leader are different in quality attributes, as the first one focus more on achievements where as the second one focus on over all development of the organisation, stake holders etc.,
With clear vision about future, a leader can re build the organisation and re align the resources’ by influencing and inspiring the best qualities in each and every member in a team, where as a manager try to manage for smooth running of team by duly assigning tasks, and accomplishing the tasks.
Finally, A leader is the one who knows the way and shows the way.