Leadership and Management in Business Contexts: A Comprehensive Report

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Leadership and Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Traits of a Successful Leader.......................................................................................................3
Development of Leadership.........................................................................................................5
Comparison between leadership and management..........................................................................8
Reflection.......................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
Assessment 2:................................................................................................................................13
Summary:.......................................................................................................................................13
Reflection:......................................................................................................................................14
Presentation:..................................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................28
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Introduction
The intent of the report is to emphasise on the aspect of leadership and management in context of
business. Leadership and management play a crucial for an organisation in accomplishment of
the business goals and objectives. Besides this, it directs one of the major aspects of a company,
which are the human resources for carrying out the business activities effectively. Placing
effective leadership and management within the organisation not just helps a company in
achieving the business goals but also overcoming the difficulties and complexities involved in
the process of achieving so. Leaders and managers both play different role in an organisation.
The report will portray the different traits of a leader to be successful. Besides this, it will also
accentuate on the aspect whether effective leadership skills can be developed or not. The report
will also portray the aspects that differentiate leadership from management with relevant
application of leadership and management theories.
Discussion
Traits of a Successful Leader
The traits of a successful leader are as follows.
 Self-managing
 Acting strategically
 Having vision for the upcoming days
 Fostering innovation and creativity
 Managing complexity
 Being accountable
Self-managing:
Leaders involve managing others in an organisation. It is extremely difficult to manage other
people in a company if the leader cannot manage himself or her. Successful leaders have this
quality in integrated in themselves, as they prioritise their objectives and take up the
accountability for achieving the objectives they set up. As an effective or successful leader, it is
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of importance to regulate time, emotions, and attention whereas remaining conscious of the
competencies and weaknesses (Giltinane, 2013).
Acting strategically:
Another key trait of a successful leader is their way of acting strategically. At present, it is
necessary for the leaders to have an open-minded as well as forward thinking approach. Besides
this, it is of significance for the leaders to remain prepared for effective adjustment of their
strategies in order to confine the emerging prospects along with combating the unanticipated
challenges efficiently (Forbes, 2019). Effective and successful leaders tend to think strategically
where they keep on analysing the business environment in which the company is operating.
Along with this, leaders acting strategically cultivate their strategic thinking through effective
maintenance of a positive outlook, concentrating on the future alongside focusing on the
organisations current operational circumstances. Leaders with strategic thinking are highly
flexible with their mindset and try out new ideas and approaches.
Having vision for the upcoming days:
Exceptional leaders have this one trait in common that is to possess a vision for the future.
Successful leaders have the latent look into the organisation’s future as well as make apparent
and concrete objectives, which will turn out be fruitful for the business in near future (Johansen,
2012). Successful leaders are visionary, as they are expert in managing changes while striking a
perfect balance amid the growth and stability of the business. Successful leaders with a concrete
vision incorporate new approaches devoid of being deviated from the main goal.
Fostering innovation and creativity:
Exceptional and successful leaders have the urge of innovation and creativity within themselves.
Successful leaders comprehend the value of innovation and they have the courage of taking risks,
which further engrosses experimentation and empower creativity (Schoemaker et al., 2013).
Successful leaders tend to foster innovation among the employees as it steers the company in
completely new directions as well as twist and turns of altering the landscape of the business.
Managing complexity:
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Any organisation entails numerous complexities, which the leaders require figuring and solving
in order to increase the business efficiency. Successful leaders are excellent at effective
management of the different complexities in a company. Effective leaders tend to solve the
complexities creating issues and make swift decisions during the rapidly changing situations. To
lead in a complex circumstance is vital for the leaders to be successful. Exceptional leaders with
the trait of managing complexity assess the complexity of the circumstances as well as opt for
the most suitable course of action even if they do not have any definitive information.
Being accountable:
Another main trait of a successful leader is their sense of accountability or responsibility.
Successful and effective leaders know when to make use of the authority and power they possess
that to without engulfing the employees of the company. Successful leaders consider and hold
themselves accountable as well as take responsibility for own mistakes. Accountable leaders tend
to perform effectively within the developed procedures alongside be efficient and productive in
their decisions as well.
Development of Leadership
The question of whether leaders are made or born has been under research for several years. The
“Great man Leadership Theory” asserts that leaders are born but not made. As per this
leadership theory, leaders possess certain set of characteristics, which are inherent. This model
also states that great leaders arise in the times of great need. This theory of leadership
accentuates that leaders are gifted with qualities that are unique and capture the thoughts of
several people (Landis et al., 2014). Besides this, the theory mentions that not every individual
can aspire of becoming a leader as well as attain greatness. According to this theory of
leadership, the inherent qualities of leadership are adequate for a leader to influence the
followers and be successful at the same time.
However, the behavioural theory of leadership states that people have the latent of becoming
leaders and thus, falsifying the assumptions made by Great Man theory of leadership. As per this
leadership theory, individuals can become a leader via the process of teaching, learning, and
observing. According to this theory, leadership is a set of skills, which an individual can learn
through taking part in training sessions, perception, practice, as well as experience gained
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overtime (Storey, 2016). The leaders become successful overtime, as they seek the prospects of
development, which makes it viable for them in learning as well as acquiring new skills and
abilities. This leadership theory considers the actions and reactions of the leaders that are
observable in a given circumstance. This theory of leadership lays emphasis on the manner in
which leaders behave. It specifies that leaders are made but not born. It is because for a leader to
be successful is based on learnable and definable behaviour.
Thus, from the comparison of both the theories the behavioural theory of leadership seems to be
quite realistic as well as pertinent on the aspect that leaders are made but not born. From this, it
can be stated that it is possible for an individual to develop good leadership. For an individual to
establish leadership skills, it is of extreme importance to practice discipline. Any good leader is
highly disciplined. Establishing discipline in the professional life is highly essential for an
individual to be an exceptional leader, as it would make it feasible for him or her to inspire the
other members in the company to be disciplined. Along with this, a leader is judged based on his
or her potential to lead by the disciplines portrayed at the workplace. For an individual to be an
effective leader, it is necessary to depict discipline at the workplace through meeting the
deadlines and keeping appointments (Northouse, 2014).
Moreover, another way of establishing leadership is to inspire others. For an individual to be an
effective leader, it is essential for them to comprehend that even they are the part of the team. An
effective leader tends to motivate as well as inspire other people at the workplace in the best
possible way. Motivating the employees from time to time makes it possible for leaders to not
only get the jobs done on time but also portray their effectiveness as a leader of the company.
Besides this, in order to develop good leadership it is of extreme significance for an individual to
comprehend the value of following (Siewiorek et al., 2012). A successful leader never has any
problem while yielding control and authority to some other person when required. Every leader
tends to be a follower in certain stage of their life and in the process; they tend to learn what it
takes to be a successful leader. Apart from this, for any individual to be a good and successful
leader it is of utmost significance to keep on learning. To carry on with learning is one of the best
possible ways of becoming an effective and successful leader. At present, the successful leaders
kept learning new things all throughout their professional journey. It makes it feasible for them
to have a acute and sharp mind. Besides this, it also enables them in keeping their skills fresh as
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well as during the process of learning they come across and master new skills as well. To keep
on learning also makes it viable for the leaders to counter new challenges, which might come in
their way that is always a positive point for any leader (Crossan et al., 2013).
From the above discussion, it is clear that leadership can always be developed but to a certain
potential and therefore, the development of leadership can have certain limitations in different
human beings. It is always important for the leaders to have a vision at all times so that they can
describe what they want to the other people and be precise about the goals and show the future of
the reality of the objectives (Renz 2016). Some of the qualities of a good leader can always be
seen among the chairman of the founder of different companies around the world. Some leaders
like Steve Jobs and Ambani always take on more initiatives and they always delegate the tasks to
the employees. These leaders have extremely good communication skills and they can always
maintain a good relationship between them and employees. Some of the characteristics of these
leaders are that they have complete and perfect communication with employees so that they can
communicate the skills, goals, intentions and this is used by them to deal with the problems of
the organisation (Bush et al. 2019). These people are always engaged in increasing their
communication skills and always have a perfect listening skill so that they can help the
employees with the tasks and make them understand the requirements of the company.
People like Warren Buffett and Jeff Bezos have a separate kind of leadership skill and they try to
know about all leadership styles so that they can choose the best in a different situation. They
also try to understand the strength and weaknesses of their abilities and they also monitor their
skills so that they can eradicate the weaknesses and focus more on enhancing the way they deal
with the people (McCaffery 2018). These people are much more interested in critical thinking
and that is why they can counter potential issues before they actually happen. They always take
the opportunities available to them and provide the employees with the ability to take part in the
decision-making process. These people can always enhance the leadership skills by advocating
creativity and using intellectual stimulation so that creativity can be encouraged inside the
company and employees can use it for the betterment. These people take creativity and
innovation seriously to develop the leadership skills and they also try to increase effective
listening skills so that they can know about every activity of the company and also learn about
the working environment where the people are working at (Thorpe 2016).
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Some of the leaders to increase their personal leadership skills take the personality test which
helps to identify the skills the person have and the way in which it should be increased. These
people take some time thinking about the stressful situations and the preferred leadership style
they use (Amanchukwu et al. 2015). They also ask other people about their opinions and see
whether the vision they have provided is clear enough or not. This type of tests can help these
people to have great insight into the particular style of leadership and help the person to improve
the abilities and build specific strengths.
Some people like Tim Cook use a personal journal and write down the reflections they face
every day so that they can understand the mishandled situations, the problems with time
management, the long-term goals and accomplishments of the team (Hallinger and Wang 2015).
Sometimes leadership skills can also be developed by leadership building experiences and team
building and sometimes the people must focus on becoming a leader outside the workplace as
well. Finally, it is important for the leaders to have beautifully created and competent teams so
that the vision and ideas can be put to reality and that dynamics can be handled easily (Cherry
and Jacob 2016).
Comparison between leadership and management
The ideas of management and leadership overlap sometimes but they are not the same however,
both of these concepts involve the influence, working to achieve the common goals and deals
with people inside the organisation. However, the operations of both managers and leaders have
the same the concept but are very much different in terms of ideas and behavior. It has been
asserted by various scholars leadership is a kind of multi-directional influence relation whereas
management is a much more unidirectional authority relationship (Bolden 2016). It was
mentioned in some of the articles that there is always a need for effective managers and effective
leaders so that the organisation can reach the goals but it is also argued that each of the managers
and leaders of a company has different roles and different contributions to the company. The
leaders of the organisation and much more responsible for creating the changes and bringing on
new approaches so that it becomes easy to understand the beliefs of the people and gain their
commitment towards the primary aim of the company (Diamond and Spillane 2016). The
managers are somehow the promoters of stability and they do not like the risks at all. They try to
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exercise the authority as much as possible to get the things done and therefore, the management
and leadership must always have people of different abilities and beliefs.
Some of the differences mentioned by remarkable scholars are that the managers are responsible
for taking care of the system and the structure of the company whereas the leaders are
responsible for focusing on motivation, communication and the shared goals of the company.
According to Watson, there are 7 S strategies and the elements of these strategies include the
skills, the systems, the structures, the strategy, the shared values and the style, and this is a much
structured strategy for the leaders comparing to the managers. It was opined by Bryman that
leadership is associated with strategic innovation and it was briefly described that there are
certain differences between managers and leaders, which is “leaders do the right things;
managers do things right”
(Herman 2016). It was also explained by some other scholar that there is a need for new
generation leaders in the 21st century as both leadership and management have started to
influence people, have started to work with people and have started to work on the common
goals of the company.
The fields of both leadership and management are different and it was described by John Kotter
that the leaders are focused on the regular tasks of the company so that they can cope up with the
changes whereas the management is much more focused on the formal responsibility to cope up
with everyday complexity (Solomon et al. 2016). It was argued that leadership is a kind of
process that helps to develop the vision of the organisation and align the employees of the
company with such vision, and these people also motivate employees so that their actions can
fulfil the basic needs of the company. According to John Kotter, people have the wrong idea
about leadership being mystical and charismatic, and the person points out that it has nothing to
do with the exotic personality traits and mysteries (Larson and Gray 2017). The person also
points out that management and leadership can act as a replacement in several activities but it is
necessary for both to be volatile to the business environment and to control the formal functions
of the organization (Pardey 2016). Again, argued by some scholars, that management and
leadership are two ways of organising people and leadership is associated with the creation of a
vision and a new direction for the group whereas management is responsible for controlling and
directing resources according to the values and principles of the company.
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Basis of
comparison
Leadership Management
Definition Leadership is associated with the
ability of a person to motivate and
influence others and to make them
contribute towards the effectiveness
and the success of the organisation
(Donate and de Pablo 2015)
The management is much more
concerned with the direction and
controlling of the employees so that
they can harmonise the group towards
the achievement of the common goal of
the company
Styles The styles of leadership generally
transformational, participative and
consultative. These people are
generally mercurial and brilliant
and have great charisma. These
people are associated with taking
risks and they have high levels of
imagination
These people are much more rational
and they are the problem solvers of the
organisation. The get everything under
control and their focus is on the
structures, personal, goals and
availability of resources. They are
much more focused on analysis,
intelligence and strong will. Therefore,
they are much more authoritative,
transactional, dictatorial, autocratic and
democratic
Orientation People-oriented Task-oriented
Focus Leading an organisation Managing the work
Outcomes Achievements Results
Approaches These people are much more
concerned with the simple problems
These people are concerned with
creating policies and strategies so that
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and they try to deal with them with
creative solutions. They use their
charisma and commitment to solve
the problems and motivate the
people to excel
they can combine the operations
properly and can empower the people
with the values, views and principles.
This is done to inherent risk conditions
and generates success (Hallinger and
Hammad 2019).
Risks Risk-taking Risk-averse
Decision
making
Facilitates only Involved fully
Organisation They have followers They have subordinates
Power
through
Charisma Authority
Reflection
From the above course, I understood that leadership is a practical skill that is inherent by an
individual who help that person to lead other people, teams and the entire organisations and this
also depends upon the different situation the person faces. Leaders always have different
influences and they have different traits and characteristics than the managers of the companies.
Some of the characteristics seen among the leaders include the power, the interactional
behaviour, the values, and the direction of the vision, the charismatic influence, the intelligence
and social influence. I also understand that leadership is a process of influencing, guiding and
directing the behaviour of the people towards specific goals and they are not much more
concerned with making the people the subordinates at work with confidence and zeal.
These people have influential behaviour and they have the capacity to influence a certain group
of people towards further reasons, motivations and the achievement of the visions. I also learnt
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that leadership and management different concepts and they are different in their different
approaches. Productive leaders grasp the estimation of development and they have the fortitude
of going out on a limb, which further charms experimentation and engage innovativeness.
Prolific leaders consider themselves responsible to perform successfully inside the created
methodology nearby be effective and beneficial in their choices too (Northouse 2018).
I believe that they generally accept the chances accessible to them and give the workers the
capacity to partake in the basic leadership process. These individuals can generally improve the
initiative aptitudes by pushing innovativeness and utilizing scholarly incitement with the goal
that inventiveness can be energized inside the organization and representatives can utilize it for
the advancement. I also felt that the leaders of the company are substantially in charge of making
the progressions and expediting new methodologies with the goal that it turns out to be easy. In
addition, I feel that they are by one way or another, the advertisers of dependability and they
don't care for the dangers by any stretch of the imagination.
Conclusion
From the above study, it is clear that leaders and managers both assume a distinctive job in an
association. The report has depicted the various attributes of a leader to be effective. Other than
this, it has likewise emphasized the aspect of whether effective leadership skills can be created or
not. The report has likewise depicted the viewpoints that separate leadership from management
with pertinent use of leadership and the management theories. Leadership and management play
a pivotal for an association in the achievement of the business objectives and goals.
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