Leadership and Management: Developing Good Leadership Skills

This report covers elements which are required to become a successful leader as well as how good leadership can be developed. It highlights the basis that distinguishes leadership from management. Good leadership is a continuous practice which takes appropriate time and patience to develop. Leadership is not a trait that comes with birth but an individual dedicated to became a good leader can certainly develop skills and characteristics that will result in great leadership.

Leadership and
management

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
What is involved in being a successful leader.............................................................................1
Can good leadership be developed..............................................................................................2
Distinguish leadership from management ..................................................................................4
What you have learnt about leadership from your experiences on this module .........................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Management is an activity of planning, organising, guiding, leading and controlling all
the available resources of organisation. It is a set of principles which gives directions to member
of organisation on how to behave in certain situations. Leadership is described as an individual's
ability to encourage, influence, guide and motivate others in order to make them works in the
direction of company's goals (Adams and Velarde, 2018). It is an crucial function of
management which assists organisations to project their human resources in a way that results in
improved efficiency and more productivity. It acts as both research area and practical skill which
comprehend individual's power to lead or influence a group of people. Management concerns
more about handling day to day operations of business whereas leadership majorly concerned
with how to motivate people so they follow vision of company. Both are closely related as
managers attempt to be good leaders and leaders need to acquire management skills in order to
be more effective.
This report covers elements which are required to become a successful leader as well as
how good leadership can be developed. It highlights the basis that distinguishes leadership from
management.
What is involved in being a successful leader
A successful is leader is someone who can invigorate, motivate and encourage people to
do their best with full potential. Good leaders have the power to greatly affect success of
company and its teams. Leaders should have the ability to connect with their followers by
allowing open communication, by emphasis on employee development and by taking regular
feedbacks. People with traits like self confidence, motivated, intellectual and high positive
thinking can become successful leaders in future (Adams, 2018). These characteristics will help
them to see early opportunities for business and how to effectively convey those to employees so
they work towards organisation's goals. Some personnels are gifted with these skills but the traits
needed for leadership can also be learned and modified with appropriate time and proper
practice. Major trait involves in leadership is self managing as it is impossible to manage others
if an individual cannot manage themselves.
The great man theory is one of best conceptual way to look at leadership which suggests
that great leaders cannot be made but they are born like that. These people have traits that is not
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commonly found which enables them to lead better than others. Another assumption of this
theory is that great leaders can be arise if needed (Briggs and Coleman, 2019). Theory implies
that those who have power deserves to lead a group of people as they have all the traits it require.
Ralph Stogdill’s Common Traits suggests that individual have leadership trait which can
works in certain situations. Stogdill believed that there is nothing like key traits and successful
leadership characteristics can be relevant to demand of business environment. They conduct
various surveys to understand how leadership traits contribute to firms success. Major leadership
traits according to this theory are described below: Intelligence- It is defined as major trait which develops problem solving skills and helps
leaders in social judgements. Intelligence trait is ability to use rational thinking and
logical reasoning to effectively communicate vision of company to followers. Self confidence- It is referred as ability of leader to know about one's capabilities and
skills as well as their belief in oneself. This provides leaders the vision that they can bring
necessary change by positively influencing others (Bush, Bell and Middlewood, eds.,
2019). Determination- It is termed as the desire to do certain job and yield positive results.
Determination is combination of many traits like intuitive, lastingness, control and drive.
It allows leaders to be more proactive and adopt challenging situations. Integrity- It is set of qualities that leaders must possess such as honesty, trustworthiness
and positive approach. Good leaders should follow ethical standards and integrate actions
of others by telling them they are trusted and worthy.
 Sociability- It is individual's trait to maintain social relationship and their ability to create
pleasant connection with others. Such type of leaders are more friendly and sensitive in
ascertaining others needs.
Can good leadership be developed
Good leadership is a continuous practice which takes appropriate time and patience to
develop. Leadership is not a trait that comes with birth but an individual dedicated to became a
good leader can certainly develop skills and characteristics that will result in great leadership.
Katz three skills have provided outlines of skills sets that makes a leader successful (Donert,
2018). Katz believed that these three skills includes a broad scope of capabilities where every
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skill defines the areas in which these skills can interact with management at several levels. Skills
of successful leaders are mentioned underneath: Technical skills- This skill is widely scattered as it is defined as a learning capacity of an
individual in any given field. Leaders must have technical skill on large scale as all
organisations require management which exist at every level. A technically sound leader
will be able to understand mechanism of machinery easily and will effectively coach their
followers on its operation (Hallinger and Kovacevic, 2021). In corporate roles, it is
required to have basic competencies such as typing, programming, maintenance, giving
presentations and utilising software. In order to develop successful leadership, an
individual must learn technological skills so that they can collect sensitive information
and communicate them further. Conceptual skills- These skills are associated with creating new ideas by innovative
intuitions and a comprehensive understanding of all levels. It is critical for making a
leader successful in organisation. Conceptual skills are required for upper level thinking
and in strategic planning. It is ability of form ideas in mind that can results in increasing
success of an organisation. This skill needs variety of information and high extent of
creativity so that it can generate new ideas, different strategies and better decision
making. This skill benefits those leaders who work at upper level of management as they
are responsible with determining and making strategies for wider operational approach of
firm (Jones, 2018). Conceptual skills are essential to empower leaders at all levels to
effectively monitor operations of enterprise and frame them conceptually. It allows
leaders to determine weaknesses of organisation and transforms them into potential
opportunities by creating vision in followers that they can improve their skills and
abilities to generate more profits.
 Human skills- Managerial functions mainly involves staffing, directing and reporting of
personnels at various levels. As a result, businesses needs people to lead and guide them
instead of giving them instructions at every level. Human skills are required to become a
good leader as it involves connecting with workforce effectively. This skill differentiate a
manager from a leader where leaders encourages human side of followers to produce
creativity and motivation (Kaushal and Mishra, 2020). Leaders who can see their team
analytically results in increasing their efficiencies and maximise team spirit. It facilitates
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them measures to effectively deal with people and be open as well as transparent with
others. Good leaders adopts ideas of their followers which they think can positively
impact on success of organisation. Great leadership has ability to create atmosphere of
trust and confidence within organisation that can lead to increased productivity of
employees. Human skills also involves collaboration of employees with organisation to
maximise interpersonal relationship and networking. Good leaders can be develop by
adopting human skills so that they can get along with their followers and communicate
within teams. These skills will enable leaders to work with better ideas and concepts that
every person with different mindset can understand and follow without any resistance.
An individual with impelling human skills can engage with their followers and
effectively control them in challenging situations. Ability to lead a group of people
without any chaos is a major component of human skills.
Thus, good leadership can be developed by learning and adopting technical,
conceptual and human skills. The extent to which these skills will be used in leadership majorly
depends on nature and scope of organisation. Individuals can also strive to have problem solving
skills which can help them to identify and understand issues facing by company or employees
and come up with potential solution (Kelly, Vottero and Christie-McAuliffe, eds., 2018). It also
require social judgement skills so that leaders can implement necessary framework for
enterprise. In order to become a good leader, individual needs to explore relevant resources and
work hard to acquire characteristics of great leadership. A good leader should strive to work as
team of organisation and not behave like management.
Distinguish leadership from management
Management
Management refers to a process of planning, organising, staffing, motivating, directing as
well as controlling the financial, human, informational and physical resources of business to
meet its goals effectively and efficiently. The management make rules, policies and delegate
power to employees, so they work with full dedication under guidelines to achieve objectives of
company (MacKian and Simons, eds., 2021). The manager play an important role in the
development of organisation as they manage all employees and control their performance to
reduce mistake and improve efficiency. The main role of manager to recruit and engage
employees as per their skills in right direction to complete the purpose of task.
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Leadership
Leadership refers to the ability of person as well as group of person to guide and
influence employees or followers to engage them in right direction toward the achievement of
organisation goals. It is an art of personnel to lead a team and create coordination among their
working in order to achieve their common target on time. The leader perform various role such
as active listener, coach, mentor, communicator and many more to drive the efforts of their
followers to achieve success by providing them training, motivation and incentives for their
personal development (Modha, 2020). The main role of leader is they act as mentor to their team
member and has responsibility to grow skills and mindset of workers to work with full
dedication to increase overall productivity of company.
Blake and Mouton’s Management and Leadership Grid
Blake and Mouton’s Management and Leadership Grid is concerned with leader or
manager task as well as degree of their task which also known as leadership grid or managerial
grid. The model is concerned with two dimensions such as concern for production as well as
concern for people. It helps the manager to determine their leadership style on the basis of 5
leadership style that are as follows
Country club management- This is a leadership style which give more importance to
employees needs, well beings and their social requirements. In this case, followers work in
healthy and friendly environment but they don't perform in the productive sense. They have not
proper plan which they have to follow while conducting their work. Productivity of employees
will be low due to lack of strict schedule but the understanding among them is good.
Authority compliance management- In this leadership style, leaders give more
importance to productivity instead of needs of followers (Podsakoff and Podsakoff, 2019).
Employees have proper task schedule and they must obedient to rules set in order to achieve
desire goals. Leader also known as autocratic which believes in proper schedule to increase
productivity of company.
Impoverished management- In this style the leader guides and divides authorities, tasks,
responsibility but not give proper plan to follow by employees. These leaders give less
importance to both productivity and people which leads to delay in work due to pressure and
workload among employees.
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Middle of the road management- In this style, the leaders is highly concerned toward
both employees and productivity as well as make balance among needs of employees and goals
of organisation. But they achieve only half success to complete both propose.
Team management- In this leadership style, the leaders give importance to both such as
well being of employees as well as increase the productivity of company with full knowledge
and experience (Rehman and Iqbal, 2020). They find perfect solution to remove obstacles in
order to achieve both the goals effectively.
Comparison based on mission and vision
Manager – Mission of manager to improve overall performance of all employees by
recruiting them in right role as well as by providing them training as per their needs to improve
skills of whole workforce in an organisation (Sharfstein, 2018). The vision to manager to engage
all the employees of all department in same direction in order to increase productivity and
profitability of company.
Leader- Mission of leader is to guide and control the employees of their team which is
formed to achieve the goal of particular task as well as they have to manage less people as
compare to manager. The vision of leader is to improve performance of followers by motivating
them towards the achievement of goal of particular task which is the part of operations.
Order and stability vs change
The manager give order to leader to make stability among the working of team in order
achieve goals on time where as the leader make changes in their plan, method and policies of
task as per given order of manager to make improvement among the performance of employees
to increase productivity and reduce wastage or cost.
Execution and idea generation
Ideas is generated by the leader to perform particular task in specific manner after
discussing with their team member in order to achieve target on time in a effective manner then
share to manager for the approval (Swanwick, 2019). Whereas, the manager evaluate the ideas to
find advantages and drawbacks of ideas to give approval to starting working to compete the task
on time with full dedications.
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What you have learnt about leadership from your experiences on this module
From the above information as well as leadership and management concept I have learnt
various thing which helps me as leader to perform my job role effectively. I had experienced that
to perform the specific job role addition to guide the team member towards the achievement of
organisation goals. I learned various think such as role of leader, creativity, innovation, and
understanding the mindsets of various people to engage them in right direction. By using French
and Raven's power I can change my way of working according to needs of tasks and behaviour
of people. This model define five powers such as reward power, expert power, legitimate power,
coercive power and referent power these power is defined different role which helps me to lead
the employees as per the different situation such as
Reward power- I can use this power by giving financial rewards to the member for their
good performance to motivate them to work better in future which leads to increase their
confidence level to work with accuracy. This power give right to me to give benefits to followers
in order to increase their productivity.
Expert power- This power is helps me when I have expert knowledge to perform the
particular task in a manner. Such as if I am working on a project in which I have full knowledge
so I give guidance to employees to achieve the target on time with specialisation.
Legitimate power- It is also known as tittle power, I can use this power when I will
appointed for the specific position to complete particular project. So, I have more power to lead
the task and guide workers to complete the goal of task.
Coercive power- To achieve the target of urgent and crucial task , I can use this power
which is opposite of reward power. I have more power and control on employees performance as
I can fire them for their poor performance and improper practices which leads to heavy loss for
the company.
Referent power- It is inbuilt and self (MacKian and Simons, eds., 2021). (Modha, 2020).
(Podsakoff and Podsakoff, 2019). (Rehman and Iqbal, 2020). (Sharfstein, 2018). (Swanwick,
2019). generated power in a person, that come form their attitude, good looks, charm and
personality. As I reflect my nature, attitude to deal the situation as well as behaviour of
employees.
I can choose reward, legitimate and referent power as a leader to guide, manage and
encourage followers to give their full efforts toward the achievement of organisation goals. As
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well as to motivate them to increase their skills to improve performance and productivity for the
growth of company.
By using Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Approach I can perform my job role as a leader in
an organisation effectively. This approach has four leadership style related with relationships and
task that I will experience at workplace. These styles that I will chose to conduct my practices
well. Delegating style- I Can use this style when the followers are highly skilled and performed
their task with full discipline. I can give power to them to take initiative to lead the task
and achieve the goal. Participating style- I Can use this style to allow my team members to take participate in
the planning of task and give their ideas to perform the task well which helps me to
generate better relationship with them to understand them better. Selling style- I can use this style to give my ideas from my knowledge to reduce mistakes
as well as to take proper guidelines for urgent work.
 Telling style- I can use this style by telling employees as well as instructing them to
perform the particular task in that manner to maintain accuracy or quality in order to
achieve the gaol effectively.
I can choose participating leadership style to perform my job role as leader to
allow people to participate in task by interacting them as well as it helps to know their
mindset to motivate them as well tell them to improve their performance.
CONCLUSION
As per the information presented above, it has been concluded that management is a
broad term which involves several activities and leadership is one of its part. Management is
responsible to control a group of people to attain certain goals whereas leadership emphasis more
on how to encourage people so they do their job effectively and timely. Mission of management
is to provide information about company's targets and how it destine to meet those. But the
mission of leadership is to prioritise activities of company and give a framework on how those
activities will take place. Good leadership requires various skills like communication, organising,
motivating etc. so that leader can transforms company's determined objectives to their followers
so they can effectively contribute to achieve those goals. A leader became successful only if they
can efficiently drive self confidence and productivity of followers. Good leadership comes
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naturally to some people but it can be developed with time as well. It requires effectively
communicate with employees and understanding their perception and point of view so they can
lead them in ways they like. It can be developed by adopting leadership skill development skills
like technical, human and conceptual skills.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Adams, D. and Velarde, J., 2018. Leaders (MacKian and Simons, eds., 2021). (Modha, 2020).
(Podsakoff and Podsakoff, 2019). (Rehman and Iqbal, 2020). (Sharfstein, 2018).
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Adams, D., 2018. Mastering theories of educational leadership and management. University of
Malaya Press.
Briggs, A. and Coleman, M., 2019. Research methodology in educational leadership and
management. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education.
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management. Sage.
Donert, K., 2018. The Cloud in Education: Policy, Leadership, and Management Issues.
In Handbook of Research on Educational Design and Cloud Computing in Modern
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Hallinger, P. and Kovacevic, J., 2021. Mapping the intellectual lineage of educational
management, administration and leadership, 1972–2020. Educational Management
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Jones, G., 2018. Evidence-based school leadership and management: A practical guide. Sage.
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Kelly, P., Vottero, B. A. and Christie-McAuliffe, C. A. eds., 2018. Introduction to Quality and
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