DEFINING LEADERSHIP
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams
All over the world, people realize the importance of leadership for the betterment of an organization, be it a company or a nation. It would have been extremely difficult for India to get freedom without Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or achieve biracial harmony in South Africa without the guidance of a leader like Nelson Mandela. As Napoleon Bonaparte says, “A Leader is the dealer in hope.”(www.brainyquote.com)
Leaders are people with a knack to create relationships. They have a vision and the ability to motivate and inspire their people to work towards that vision and hence make it a common shared vision. A good leader will help to rescue even the most obviously failing strategy.
According to Paul Piers Read, “Leadership is a complex phenomenon involving the leader, followers and situation.”(Wren, 1995, p.39) A lot of times people tend to use the terms leadership and management interchangeably. However, both of these are two very different ways of organizing people.
The primary focus of a leader is the people working under him. Leadership operates in an environment based on trust. On the other hand, a manger tends to focus on the system and structure and how to assemble the people to get the job at hand done. In other words, leaders lead the people and managers manage the work at hand.
Leaders try to increase the strengths of the people and the organization. On the other hand, managers try to focus on the weaknesses and how to go about reducing them. A leader’s job is to create such an environment that helps motivate his people to do something new, unique and different. It might have risks of failure but a leader realizes that in order to bring about positive long term changes, it is important that the people learn from their own mistakes.
On the other hand a manager tries to avoid anything that might be risky. He likes to manage the people and the resources at hand according to principles or values that have already been established that ensure stability in the company.
To sum it all, Dr Stephen Covey says, “Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out." (Covey, 1990, p.146)
REFERNCES
- Covey, Stephen R. “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful lessons in Personal Change.”, Franklin Covey Co., 1990.
- Wren, J. Thomas. The leader’s Companion: Insights on Leadership Through the Ages, New York: Free Press, 1995.
- John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States (1825-1829), Thinkexist.com
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/john_quincy_adams/