Do All Managers Need To Be Leaders?

Leading vs. Managing

The discussion around the saying that “All Managers do not need to be leaders” has been surfacing for a couple of decades, and is most definitely very intriguing topic on its own. Leadership is an art and a skill encompassing the ability of the individual to lead, inspire, and motivate individual and organization to achieve the goals and step forward towards sustainability. Managers on the other hand as seen as individuals who are responsible for planning, coordinating and organizing tasks and activities within the business organization. However, the role of managers most definitely demands for leadership skill at some point in the careers. The essay will revolve around the argument that all managers need not be leaders, and argument will be in support of the above mentioned statement.

Within the organizational context, leading and managing are two very different roles which have their own responsibilities and job duties. Usually, both these roles are entirely different from each other, as it requires leadership to develop certain soft skills and strategic planning skills, as opposed to the mangers in general. This necessarily does not imply that a manager cannot be a leader, but it states that managers do not necessarily need to be leaders to do justification to their roles and duties and contribute to the success of the organization. It is rather interesting and important to understand the role and the distinction between the leader and the manager to develop a logical understanding in favour of the argument presented above (Bolman & Deal, 2017).

Planning, organizing, leading and controlling are primarily the four functions of management which are carried by the managers of the organization. One of the important functions of management is leading the team to work with enhanced productivity and over achieve the goals. This is the role of the leader, now in case, a manager is able to inspire, motivate and lead the team towards higher level of productivity, the manager most certainly becomes a leader in this case. In reality is it only few managers, who are able to motivate and encourage the team to work with enhanced productivity that the argument that all managers need not be leader holds true. It is not necessary nor is it the skill required to excel in the job role of managers to lead, encourage and motivate the team towards higher productivity. They are expected to ensure that the team knows their job responsibilities and everybody is working as a team to achieve the goals. A normal manager in general is more focussed on the growth of his team and the department, rather that the entire organization (Rahim, 2017).

Another important distinction which supports the argument that all managers need not be leaders is that, employees listen to their managers as a part of their job responsibility, because it is the duty of the manager to explain them their role in business. Thus, if an employee listens to their manager, it is because they have been asked and conditioned to follow their instruction in order to do justice to their job responsibilities. In the case of Leader, an employee voluntarily follows the leader because of their aura, charisma and what leadership means in true essence. Employees are organically inspired by the leaders, even if they have not even met them, but even a mention of their names spark a lot of excitement within the employees (Northouse, 2017).

The Role of Managers

In order to explain it in a better manner, let’s take an example of the e-commerce behemoth, Amazon. Jeff Bezos is the visionary and the main behind the success and growth of Amazon, it is the vision of Jeff Bezos which strikes a chord with the employees, that the online book seller at the present is selling goods in over 168 countries across the globe. Jeff Bezos does not even visit all the geographical location, but when he does, or engages with his employees through video conferencing or other tools, it is a moment of pride for them. Because they are so much inspired, encouraged and motivated by the values and culture Jeff Bezos have created, that a shear glimpse of their leader pushes them to work with enhanced productivity. Sadly, Managers do not follow the same kind of following or even a fraction of respect and admiration the leaders get. The simple explanation here is that a person becomes a leader, when he has mastered the art and role of manager, and has graduated to move up the ladder and focus on the growth of the entire organization. Manager, on the other hand is busy with his team responsibilities and team goals, while no time to focus and work towards strategic planning or to motivate the team in the organization. However, this does not at any cost; negate the important role the manager plays in the business organization. A manger effectively takes the entire burden from the leaders and works on a microscopic level, so that the leaders can focus on the developing objectives and goals to reach towards sustainability. Another major distinction which supports the argument is that, the mangers are more focussed and are responsible for the development of the team and to bring better cooperation in the team, whereas the leaders are more inclined towards the holistic growth of the organization. This goes on to say that managers are only responsible for the goals of the organization, in order to do this they have the liberty to hire, fire, make decisions, evaluate the performance of employees and many more. The role of manager here is to effectively gain the desired result from the use of structure, control, system, procedures and process within the organization. The role and the respect of the managers are due to their authority, job position and their responsibilities. However, leader does not necessarily have to be a part of the management team in order to go forward with his duties (Bens, 2017).

The biggest distinction between the manager and leader is that, leader is not required to hold a management position. The reason being that a person becomes a leader on the basis of his personal qualities, his attitude and the feet the leader has achieved in his life. People follow leader voluntarily due to his personal attributes and not because leaders have commanded this type of authority. The role of leader is to demonstrate passion and high level of excitement in the success of his followers, which might be different from organizational goals. On the flip side, a manager has to always focus on the team and organizational goals; he is responsible for the team targets and for bringing revenue to the business entity (Macdonald, Burke & Stewart, 2017).

The Role of Leaders

All managers need not be leaders, holds absolutely true. Let’s understand this from the concept of power in the organization. Leaders do not have any tangible formal power in the organization, there are given power in times of contingency or for a temporary basis. It actually depends on the capability of the leader to continue motivate and inspire the employees working in the organization. Managers on the flip side are given power, due to which they command respect and loyalty of the employees. Their power has nothing to do with their personal attribute, but has more to do with the role they perform in the business. Managers have sub-ordinates while leaders have followers, this distinction further supports the argument of distinction and the fact that all managers need not be leaders. Subordinates do not have a choice, but to listen to the demand and wishes of the mangers, followers on the other hand voluntarily follow the leaders, and they can stop at any given time to follow the leader. On the flip side, even in the scenario where the manger fails to impress the employee, he still will listen to the instruction, due to the authority and span of control, which is not the case for leaders. Leaders and leadership is all about achieving effectiveness through trust, inspiration and people in the organization. Another important distinction here is that leaders consistently challenge the status quo set by the managers, such as how to add creativity and innovation in the organization. A clear distinction which can be made here is that the leaders are visionary, creative, agile, flexible, and adaptive and change savvy, while the managers are always looking at the bottom line, and the leaders are gazing towards the horizon (Liao et. al., 2017).

It is more frequently said that good managers are trained to become better managers, and good leaders to become better leaders, the reverse does not hold true. It also points to early theory of leadership which states that leaders are born and not made. No such thing has been ever said I case of a manager. Managers were developed during the early 19^th century to facilitate better teamwork and to manage the structure and processes along with the people. Their role was circled around consistent growth in the organization, which they ensured through the role of planning, managing, leading, organizing and controlling. The role of the manager is well defined, the KPI of managers are defined by the management, and the managers are required to meet those KPI to move ahead in his jobs, whilst ensuring consistent growth in the organization. Leaders on the other hand do not have well-defined job roles, they are left lose in the organization, pick up their people and work for the upliftment, encouragement and motivation of the employees with the aim of increasing their productivity. In true sense, Leadership and management are complementary to each other, each catering towards different needs of the organization. The argument as implied says not all managers have to be leaders, it does not say that manager cannot grow to become a leader in the organization(McCaughey, 2018). For instance, large corporations despite hiring transformational and inspirational leaders look up for managers even within the organization. In accordance to the trait theory of leadership, which focuses on traits or the attributes to become a leader, management on finding such a manager with those leadership qualities innate in his personality, is subjected to leadership development programs. These Leadership development programs are becoming quite popular in the present day, which gives an opportunity for the managers to become leaders for the future. Organization searches for these qualities of leader in any individual and manager, and by their internal job posting and training; they promote the managers and give them a chance to fill a position of leadership. This practice is seen as motivation and encouragement for the managers, which in turn is initiated by the leaders of the organization. Thus, due plethora of distinction between the roles of managers and the leaders and on the basis of the arguments presented above it can be said with certainty that “Not all managers need to be leaders” (Blau, 2017).

In order to bring this essay to a logical conclusion it can be said that leaders are someone who are driven by vision, which they translate in the organization and lead to achieve the vision. Leader’s core strength lies with translating the vision into action and they have the necessary skills, convictions and the vision to achieve the same. Leaders are always thinking about the future, and how the business can achieve its goals of sustainability. They are the pioneers of change, and ensure high levels of encouragement and motivation amongst the employees. Managers on the other hand are the actual “doers”; they execute the strategic leadership vision of the organization. They are required to hire their team which would help in achieving the organizational goals; it is the duty of the manager to ensure a high level of control and structure in the organization. Thus, due to such striking dissimilarities in the roles of the leaders and managers, and their duties and responsibilities, these both are different positions which require different people. To conclude, the essay is drawn in support of the statement that “All Managers Need Not Be Leaders”

References

Bens, I., 2017. Facilitating with Ease!: core skills for facilitators, team leaders and members, managers, consultants, and trainers. John Wiley & Sons.

Blau, P., 2017. Exchange and power in social life. Routledge.

Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.

Liao, C., Wayne, S.J., Liden, R.C. and Meuser, J.D., 2017. Idiosyncratic deals and individual effectiveness: The moderating role of leader-member exchange differentiation. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(3), pp.438-450.

Macdonald, I., Burke, C. and Stewart, K., 2017. Systems leadership: Creating positive organisations. Routledge.

McCaffery, P., 2018. The higher education manager’s handbook: effective leadership and management in universities and colleges. Routledge.