CIPD 5LMS Developing Leadership and Management Skills Essay

This essay explores the concepts of leadership and management, defining them and highlighting their differences. It provides at least three interpretations of each concept, clarifying the distinctions between them. The essay evaluates various approaches to developing leaders and managers, including academic liberalism, experimental liberalism, experimental vocationalism, and the critical approach. It discusses the role of the Learning and Development (L&D) function in supporting leadership and management development, emphasizing how L&D programs enhance skills, integrate business strategies, and boost employee engagement. The essay covers indicators of success for leadership and management development programs, and it concludes by justifying methods to ensure program success, drawing on the literature and current organizational practices. The essay addresses the CIPD 5LMS unit on Developing Leadership & Management Skills.

RUNNING HEAD: LEADRSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Leadership and Management Development
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

1LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
1.1 Concepts of Leadership and Management:
Leadership:
Leadership is a term that is used to refer the process by which one individual is able to
influence other people in accomplishing a task or an objective willingly. In an organisation, the
leadership is maintained as the representative of the organisation who is responsible for
integrating the personal goals with the goals of the organisation (Bolden 2016.). The main
concepts related to leadership are Competence, clarity, courage, coaching and strength of
character. The leader is responsible for propagating the growth of the organisation by means of
his knowledge and skill, which will influence his followers. From the above discussed concept of
leadership, the following interpretations can be drawn:
1. Leadership is a quality that is required in each level of organisation;
Leadership has been described as the ability of persuading the members in undertaking a
responsibility willingly. Thus, the organisation will be requiring this quality at every level. in the
higher level, the leadership enhances the process of co operation and the formulation of the plans
as well as the policies that are crucial for the company’s strategies. In the middle and the lower
level of the organisation, the leadership is required for interpreting and executing those policies
that the management has framed (Frich, Brewster, Cherlin and Bradley 2015).. The leader in this
level has to help the employees in gathering the required competencies for adapting to the new
policies and plans.
2. Leadership is a continuous process of seeking integration:

2LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
It can be interpreted that leadership is a process, which is continuous. In an organisation,
goals and strategies changes from time to time, requiring the changes in the policies and the
required competencies of the employees (Amchukwu, Stanley and Ololube 2015). The task of a
leader is thus, to continuously strive for an integration between the organisational goal and the
personal goals. The leaders with the leadership traits that he posses, must help in reconciling and
co coordinating the efforts and the functions of the people in the common purpose and hence
facilitating in achieving a common objective. This process is continuous as the leader is required
to counsel the employees, help them in gathering knowledge, motivating them in undertaking the
new responsibilities and making positive reactions towards the changes.
3. The leader must possess certain traits:
It is however, debatable whether the qualities possessed by the leader is an innate one
with which he is born or are developed by practice. But, it can be inferred that the possession of
certain skills and com potencies by the leader is a necessary one. The main qualities that a leader
has to have are the vision and foresight, depth of knowledge in the work, adequate courage to
embrace change and undertake risks, intelligence, sense of accountability and responsibility,
empathy and strength of character.
Management:
The process of management can be defined as the way that the manager of an
organisation undertakes to make others do the assigned things with the help of some basic
activities like planning, directing, organising and controlling (Yahaya and Ebrahim 2016). The
human as well as the technical skills plays a crucial role in getting the things to be done properly.
The process of management includes the allocating the inputs of the organisation which are the

3LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
economic as well as the human resources by the managerial functions so that the definite purpose
is gained. The following ideas can be interpreted :
1. Management is a process:
The main duty of manager is to achieve a proper co ordination of the resources with the
proper implementation of the managerial functions. The task of management can be viewed as a
process since it consists of the implementation of a series of functions strategically and serially.
2. Management is dynamic and goal oriented:
The process of management is never static. Since the strategies and the goals of the
company are changing with the changing demands of the market, the plans for managing the
organisations will eventually change (Hallinger and Chen 2015.). This will require a constant
change in the managing and organising process. The main purpose behind the changes are the
achievement of goals. Whatever a manager does, are thus, goal oriented.
3. Management is multidisciplinary in nature:
Management consists of a several perspectives. The task of a manger is not one-
dimensional and is entrusted with a number of task of different kinds. The functions as discussed
above like the planning, organising, motivating, directing etc needs different skill sets.
1.2 Difference between management and leadership:
The difference about the concepts of leadership and management can be drawn from the
discussions above:

4LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
1. A leader is entrusted with the responsibility of influencing his subordinates in
achieving a specific goal. Manager on the other hand is a person who has the
responsibility of managing the entire organization.
2. A leader has to posses qualities like foresightedness and courage while the
manager is required to have intelligence.
3. A leader sets direction but a manager a manager is entitled to plan the detail.
4. A leader is a manger who has different followers where as the actual manager has
employees (Frich, Brewster, Cherlin and Bradley 2015).
5. The leader makes use of conflict as an useful asset for the growth of the team
while the manager generally avoids conflicts.
6. A leader makes use of transformational leadership style in order to influence his
team so that they can undergo changes in a positive manner. On the other hand,
the manager makes use of transactional leadership style (Lee 2014.).
7. A manger has in general reaction to a change while a leader is the one who
promotes the change.
8. The leader is responsible for aligning the people while the manager organizes the
people.
9. While the aim of the leader is to do the right things, the manager strives for doing
things right.
10. The main focus of the leader is on the people he is leading while the procedure
and the processes are focussed on by the manager.
11. The leader has the goal of developing and growing his teammates. On the other
hand a manager is concerned about the end result.

5LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
2.1. Approaches of developing leaders and managers.
A skilled and knowledgeable leader are essential resources for an organization since they
contributes to the attaining of the strategic goals of the company. There have been various
approaches designed by the researchers in order to forecast the definitive development methods
of leadership and management skills. The leadership and the management can be considered as a
reciprocal process which is done for the betterment of the organization. There are thus practical
concerns regarding the development of leaders and managers enhancing the competitiveness of
the organization. The following approaches can be evaluated in order to identify the leadership
and management development process.
1. Academic liberalism- This approach assumes that the education and the development of a
manager and leaders should be mainly focussed on the pursuit of the objective knowledge
about management (Daire, Gilson and Cleary 2014). This approach thus seeks the
dissemination of the generic principles as well as the theories that has been outlined in a
rational fashion. In this perspective the main idea lies with the development of a manager
or a leader through the knowledge of the detail theories and principles that will help them
to analyse and apply those principles.
The academic liberalism approach ca thus be termed as the approach of management
development that aims at creating a manager or a leader a ‘management scientist’ who
will have the capability of rationalising any situation and developing the means of
overcoming it. However, one of the serious defects of this approach is that it narrows the
mindset of the individuals in their development stage since they do not have the scope of
seeing beyond the established theories.

6LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
2. Experimental liberalism- this approach though shares almost all of the assumptions of the
academic liberalism approach it differs from the former on the ground that it seeks a
more practical application. The aim of this approach is primarily to create the ‘reflective
practitioner’ who is equipped with the necessary practical skills as well as knowledge and
ability so that he can adapt to and learn from the evolving situations . (Yahaya and
Ebrahim 2016). The best ways of developing leaders and managers in this approach is
giving them external assignments, external learning, situations and simulations and in
company job rotations.
The experimental liberalism is effective because it is practical and situation based
approach, however, the lack of focus on the theories can lead the individuals take
decision which may seem right and appropriate for the situation but can have
negative impact in the long run.
3. Experimental vocationalism- This approach has arise particularly to deal with the
concerns regarding economy and organization. This approach argues that the major role
for a manger and the leader is to be equipped with the relevant skill as well as knowledge
that the organization requires. The principle of experimental vocationalism is the creation
of ‘competent manager’, who has in his disposal the necessary technical as well as
interpersonal competencies.
This approach has the limitation of concerning only the organizational needs and keeping aside
the needs of the employees. This can be related with the bureaucratic management style whre
organization is the key focus.
4. Critical approach- This approach aims to “emancipate managers and other employees in
the organization from oppression and alienation” (Brennan and Brooks 2014.). The

7LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
critical approach shares a lot of similarity with the experimental liberalism since this too
put an emphasis on practical application of skills and competencies. However, it demands
an enhanced critical level of reflection that makes the people of the organization able to
become more reflexive regarding their own actions and knowledge and thereby can
formulate non instrumental, practical and emancipative forms of action. The focus of this
approach thus is to create ‘a critical practitioner’ who will have the ability of challenging
of set theories and developing new ones.
2.2 Effect of L&D function on Manger and leader development:
The learning and development is one of the major focuses while developing the manager and
leader development program. While the employees in the workplace is given learning and
developmental training in order to upgrade their skills and competencies so that they can
undertake new and more challenging responsibilities, the managers and leaders also require the
learning and development training in order to develop the required skills for proper managing or
leading. The learning and development programs can help in following ways:
1. Developing theoretical knowledge enhances the basics- though it is argued that the skill
of leadership is innate and cannot be developed from outside grooming, learning about
the variety of theories and principle can enhance the chances of more exposure to the
various ways of applications and thereby grooming one’s own self. The learning about
the principles will help and individual to know about the skills and competencies required
by the leader and thus, he can groom himself effectively (.Bush, Bell and Middlewood
eds., 2019)

8LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
2. Helps to grow skills- the learning and development functions include a variety of
trainings and practical applications of the theories that helps an individual to grow his set
of skills. This skills will in turn help the leader to make his employees stay more
connected and engaged.
3. Integration of business strategies- the learning and development functions helps the
individual to groom himself and develop his leadership skills aligning with the overall
strategy of business. The trainings given to the individuals will be based on the goals that
the business wants to achieve and thus, it will further help them manage his employees or
the team in case of leaders to set their own goals and targets.
4. Employee engagement- the learning and development will enable an individual to make
an assessment of the stakeholders involved in the process and what are their interests.
Employees are one of the most important stakeholders in an organisation. By means of
learning, the leader will be able to know the needs of the employees and thus can engage
them properly with the business functions by addressing his needs (Gopee and Galloway
2017. ).
5. Better knowledge makes a sound workforce- a team will be most effective only when its
leader is effective. The learning and development functions will make the leaders and
managers gain a thorough knowledge about their work which they can effectively pass on
to his employees or teams. A clear understanding will enhance the flow of
communication.

9LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
3.1 Indicators of Success of leadership and management development
programs:
Traditionally, the effect of the leadership and management development programs can be
measured in a number of ways that include the anecdotal evidences of the performance of the
leading style or the effectiveness of the managing styles by the individual after the completion of
the programs. Some companies also measure the success following an annual appraisal,
subjective measurement against the behavioural competencies of the company, the 360 degree
feedback technique or the BARS. However, these are time consuming and in order to measure
the actual amount of success, the organisation has to wait for a long time. Some of the effective
immediate indicators are:
6. Employee engagement- the successful management and leadership program helps in the
development of the assessing power of the leader or manager of the needs of his
employees (Gopee and Galloway 2017. ).
1. . Through the development program a individual is trained to understand the
expectations of the employees from the company. This effectively helps the leader to
design the task and the programs so that it addresses the needs of the employees.
Engaging the employees will make them understand where they exactly fit in the
organisation and thus makes a more motivated work force.
2. Effective communication- one of the chief aim of the developmental programs for the
leaders and managers is to develop the inter personal and the communication skills of the
individuals so that they can communicate and motivate his team or workforce. Proper
communication helps in the better understanding of job and also in the ruling away of any
confusion regarding the job (Thomas Cornuel and Canals 2014.). If the developmental

10LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
program reflects an enhanced and clear communication, it marks the success of the
program. The improvement in the communication is one of the most primary things that
is easy to locate.
3. Innovation- one of the most important and desirable indicator of the success of the
leadership and managerial training program is the ability to innovate. The learning and
development functions and the cognitive training help the individual to innovate new
ideas that will enhance the motivation and competency set of the employees and the
organisation as a whole. The ideas of innovation and the effectiveness of the same can be
deduced and analysed at the beginning. The innovative ways in which a leader is
motivating the team or making his team understand a task in order to generate interest are
the measures that can be indicated even at the primary stages of leadership.
4. Strategic thinking- the success of the leadership and management development programs
can be measured by the extent to which the individual has been made able to think
strategically aligning with the goals of the organisation (Fernández-Muñiz Montes-Peón
and Vázquez-Ordás 2014). The success of the program lies in the fact that the individual
will be able to gain a strategic upper hand to judge the vision of the company and making
the workforce work according to that vision.
3.2 Measures for ensuring the success of the development programs:
It is important for an organisation to invest some research regarding the main elements
that is required to make the developmental program a successful one. Most of the developmental
programs has the seed of some core objectives. However, according to the shifts of needs and

11LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
priorities it changes. But, a deliberate connection to the main essentials of the profit and well
being of the organisation will make the program a more effective one:
1. The foremost thing required in the development program is the understanding and
knowledge of the individual about what is going to happen with the and exactly what
outcomes are being expected (Brue and Brue 2016). It is essential for the company that
they make the individuals clear about the learning process and methods they are going to
embark upon and the activities or the facilitator they will be getting. The complete
understanding of the methodologies and the relationship and roles of the facilitator as
well as the confidentiality will help the individual to understand the intent of the
organisation and the organisation to understand the comfort level of the individual. This
will lower the cases of manipulation, intrigue or surprises in the way of program that may
affect the learning process.
2. One of the major element of the learning program is to develop the behavioural
competencies of the individual. With too much focus on the training and skill
development, the organisation will actually end up in limiting the effectiveness of the
total program (Birasnav 2014). The main developmental challenges for most of the
managers and leaders are to overcome the behavioural aspects and personal effectiveness.
Thus, the individuals need to focus more on the attitudes and personalities rather than the
developing of knowledge about the theories. An individual requires immense courage to
develop the serious commitment towards managing or the changing nature of personal
behaviour.
3. It is essential to make the program design a flexible one. This will enable the program in
achieving the dynamic engagement with each participant. The individuals taking part in

12LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
the programs have separate personalities, needs and ambition. A one dimensional
attribute towards the development program may not attract all the participants and
eventually lead to the failure of the development program. A program which is totally
driven by the content without an optimum flexibility often fails to address the pre
conditions, learning styles or the degree of openness of the individual (Mehrabani, and
Mohamad 2015).
Reference List:
Amanchukwu, R.N., Stanley, G.J. and Ololube, N.P., 2015. A review of leadership theories,
principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1), pp.6-14
Birasnav, M., 2014. Knowledge management and organizational performance in the service
industry: The role of transformational leadership beyond the effects of transactional
leadership. Journal of business research, 67(8), pp.1622-1629.

13LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Bolden, R., 2016. Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower handbook
of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge.
Brennan, G. and Brooks, M., 2014. Rational choice approaches to leadership. In The Oxford
Handbook of Political Leadership (pp. 161-75). Oxford: Oxford University Press
Brue, K.L. and Brue, S.A., 2016. Experiences and outcomes of a women's leadership
development program: A phenomenological investigation. Journal of Leadership
Education, 15(3).
Bush, T., Bell, L. and Middlewood, D. eds., 2019. Principles of Educational Leadership &
Management. SAGE Publications Limited.
Daire, J., Gilson, L. and Cleary, S., 2014. Developing leadership and management competencies
in low and middle-income country health systems: a review of the literature. Cape Town:
Resilient and Responsive Health Systems (RESYST).
Fernández-Muñiz, B., Montes-Peón, J.M. and Vázquez-Ordás, C.J., 2014. Safety leadership, risk
management and safety performance in Spanish firms. Safety science, 70, pp.295-307.
Frich, J.C., Brewster, A.L., Cherlin, E.J. and Bradley, E.H., 2015. Leadership development
programs for physicians: a systematic review. Journal of general internal medicine, 30(5),
pp.656-674.
Gopee, N. and Galloway, J., 2017. Leadership and management in healthcare. Sage.
Hallinger, P. and Chen, J., 2015. Review of research on educational leadership and management
in Asia: A comparative analysis of research topics and methods, 1995–2012. Educational
management administration & leadership, 43(1), pp.5-2

14LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Lee, M., 2014. Transformational leadership: is it time for a recall?. International journal of
management and applied research, 1(1), pp.17-29.
Mehrabani, S.E. and Mohamad, N.A., 2015. New approach to leadership skills development
(developing a model and measure). Journal of Management Development.
Thomas, H., Cornuel, E. and Canals, J., 2014. Global leadership development, strategic
alignment and CEOs commitment. Journal of Management Development.
Yahaya, R. and Ebrahim, F., 2016. Leadership styles and organizational commitment: literature
review. Journal of Management Development.