Leadership vs. Management

            In my understanding of leaders and managers, the most fundamental difference in the two is that both managers and their employees are chosen, and mandated to both manage, and follow out the tasks assigned, while leaders are followed voluntarily, and without the support of the voluntary follower could not exist.  It seems to me that within the scope of our class and my classmates, many of us may aspire to become managers within agencies or organizations, and perhaps what we can take from this class is that we also aspire to be leaders within those roles, encouraging followership via example and voluntary allegiance, rather than being satisfied with supervisees who are complacent merely by mandate of their positions.

            The articles around President Obama’s current term, as well as his campaign for the impending term inspire me to think more broadly about leadership versus management.  There are interesting observations to be made around the current campaign management, and I wonder myself whether this President, who has inspired followership amongst a great diversity of persons, particularly in the 2008 elections, could have been planted more directly at the center of the current campaign, focusing on his leadership qualities, ad not only the management of the country.  Ideally, we’d love to believe that at root of winning an election is having a genuine and inspiring leader, however in reality, I wonder if the management strategy of the campaign has a larger influence on the election outcome.

           

I also see a great divide in the roles of manager and leader within agency.  In my experience, those at an agency whom I would count as leaders hold a very different position than those merely appointed managers in dealings with the employees.  Those I count as leaders faced issues, problems and concerns with the approach of finding root causes and encouraging the staff to investigate the best possible outcomes.  These are the same leaders who ultimately would carry the burden if the staff’s efforts were not successful, and in best cases use these losses as a teaching tool and a way to move forward.  Those I have encountered who I would label strictly as managers, were much more apt to apply penalty when staff made a mistake, and to blame the staff for any unsuccessful efforts.  While management of programs is instrumental to program success, I have found that solely using this style of management promotes fear within the staff and a lack of loyalty.

As we continue to move forward in the field, I have faith that continuing to learn and examine the most fruitful strategies of management and leadership will allow my classmates, and myself, to one day manage efforts in ways that will prompt not only compliance, but rather dedication and loyalty within the agencies and programs in which we will have opportunity to work.