University Discussion: Leading in an Organization, Leadership Skills

This discussion post, authored by a student, delves into the critical interplay between leadership and management within an organizational context. The student highlights the distinct yet complementary roles of leaders, who inspire and drive change, and managers, who focus on planning, organization, and control. The post argues that both leadership traits and management skills are foundational for organizational success, emphasizing the importance of leaders possessing managerial capabilities and vice versa. The author agrees with the notion that the success of an organization depends on teamwork between employees, managers, and leaders. Furthermore, the post references several academic sources to support the arguments presented. The student differentiates the roles of managers and leaders, while also acknowledging that both sets of skills are important for the successful operation of an organization. The post concludes by emphasizing the importance of both management and leadership for organizational sustainability and smooth operations.

Running Head: LEADING IN AN ORGANIZATION
Leading in an Organization
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1LEADING IN AN ORGANIZATION
1. Why both leadership traits and management skills are foundational for
leading an organization, improving organizational structure, and making
managerial decisions.
The role of leadership and management in an organization are often confused with
each other. In reality, these two organs are different at what they do. The leaders job is to
direct an organization and its workforce to success. They lead the interpersonal relationship
of the organization. They motivate the employees, inspire and influence them and brings
change in the way an organization operates (Kuipers et al. 2014). The managers on the other
hand must also plan, organize and control. They are also responsible for creating strategies
for facilitating change and the smooth running of the organization. The leaders in an
organization is visionary while the managers are more involved with the planning and
implementation of the organizational strategies.
In leading an organization and the role of leadership is immense. They bring
transformations in an organization while mobilizing the people and inspiring them to strive
for better. Managers are there to give stability to the organization and implement the changes.
The both the leaders and the managers must have the qualities of each other. An effective
leader must be able to manage aspects related to organization and good managers also have
leadership qualities. In order to be able to maintain the sustainability of an organization, both
the management and the leadership activities needs to be involved with each other
(Algahtani, 2014). A manager who does not know how to lead will not be able to inspire the
people. It will kill the interest of the people while having leaders that are unable to manage
will not be able to complete any project successfully due to bad management. This will
disengage his followers to a great extent and he will lose credibility as a good leader. Most of
the personality traits such as confidence, charisma, humility, trustworthiness and

2LEADING IN AN ORGANIZATION
assertiveness are also the qualities that a good manager must also possess in order to perform
his responsibilities (Voet, 2014).
The author of the post talks about how managers can effectively run an organization. I
differ with this opinion. I believe that the roles and responsibilities of a manager and a leader
are completely different. The charisma and influence that a leader is able to exert is not
possible by managers. On the other hand, the manager’s skills enable them to keep their cool
and take hard strategic decisions that might not be always possible for a leader as they are
largely driven by passion (Chiu, Balkundi & Weinberg, 2017). The author of the post also
states that the success of the organization is a teamwork for the employees as well as
managerial and leadership roles. I agree with the author in this regard. Organizational success
depends on many aspects and among them leadership and management are the two main
departments. Without cooperation between the two, no organization will be able to run
smoothly. The leaders make the plans while it is the duty of the managers to implement them,
monitor them and give feedback.

3LEADING IN AN ORGANIZATION
References
Algahtani, A. (2014). Are leadership and management different? A review. Journal of
Management Policies and Practices, 2(3), 71-82.
Chiu, C. Y. C., Balkundi, P., & Weinberg, F. J. (2017). When managers become leaders: The
role of manager network centralities, social power, and followers' perception of
leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(2), 334-348.
Kuipers, B. S., Higgs, M., Kickert, W., Tummers, L., Grandia, J., & Van der Voet, J. (2014).
The management of change in public organizations: A literature review. Public
administration, 92(1), 1-20.
Van der Voet, J. (2014). The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public
organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational
structure. European Management Journal, 32(3), 373-382.