The Challenges and Opportunities Facing Today’s Leaders and Managers free essay sample

All these will be discussed in detail in the following report and all findings will be references in the references section at the end of the report. Definitions of Leaders/ Leadership The person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country. (Oxford University Press, 2013) Good leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience (Jago, 1982). Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership knowledge and skills. This is called Process Leadership (Jago, 1982). However, we know that we have traits that can influence our actions. This is called Trait Leadership (Jago, 1982), in that it was once common to believe that leaders were born rather than made. These two leadership types are shown in the chart below. Figure 1: Trait and Process Theory of leadership (Source: Clark, 2013) Definitions of Managers/ Management A person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or group of staff. We will write a custom essay sample on The Challenges and Opportunities Facing Today’s Leaders and Managers or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page (Oxford University Press, 2013) A Manager is the person responsible for planning and directing the work of a group of individuals, monitoring their work, and taking corrective action when necessary. For many people, this is their first step into a management career. Managers may direct workers directly or they may direct several supervisors who direct the workers. The manager must be familiar with the work of all the groups he/she supervises, but does not need to be the best in any or all of the areas. It is more important for the manager to know how to manage the workers than to know how to do their work well. This is quite a good definition of a manager and to sum it up in one sentence quoted from the Harvard Business school text: ‘A manager is someone who gets results through other people’. When we look at the two in comparison we can see that leadership and management are both important, but they seek to do different things. Some say that good leadership is more important than good management; leadership and management are crucial factors that determine the company’s further development. Effective leaders will focus on your future and good managers will focus on your present operations. They are not the same thing but are also complementary to each other. * The manager administers, the leader innovates * The manager is a copy, the leader is an original. * The manager maintains, the leader develops Source: The Wall Street Journal, 2013) The challenges and opportunities that face both in today’s world Being an effective leader/manager is all about being someone who leads by example. A manager is someone who simply follows the job objective. Today both have to be strong communicators, it is vital that they understand the two-way nature of communication so th ey are able to nurture good ideas from employees on an on-going basis. One of the biggest challenges that they face is to lead a sometimes very diverse team to work as one unit in harmony while being productive. I would argue that the ability to prioritise in the face of difficulty, conflicting reactions while at the same time remain calm and able to communicate outwardly the reasons behind this prioritisation are key challenges faced daily in such a post on a daily basis. Some common situations that call for leaders and managers to use their resources include: * Public criticism, especially uninformed criticism, of your group or mission. * Flare-ups of others interpersonal issues, either within the group or outside it. Crises, which could be tied to finances, program, politics, public relations (scandals), legal concerns (lawsuits), even spiritual issues (loss of enthusiasm, low morale). * Disasters. These are different from crises, in that, in a crisis, something important (usually negative, but not always) seems to be happening, and youre trying to control the situation. In a disaster, the worst has already happened, and youre trying to deal with that in some way. * Opposition and/or host ility from powerful forces (business groups, local government, an influential organization, etc. * A financial or political windfall. Sometimes an unexpected benefit can be harder to handle than a calamity. * Collaboration with another group or organization may call upon a leader to define clearly the boundaries within which he can operate, and to balance the needs of his own group with those of the collaborative initiative as a whole. * Dealing with outstanding and underperforming employees, this will require more of your time and time you may not have however to keep either employee time must be given to them to grow and nurture into the role or another role in the company. This is by no means a comprehensive list, and most managers/leaders will be able to think of many other possibilities from their own experience. Its clear, however, that they are often tested by external events and people. What are some of the general strategies they can use to cope with these and other external and therefore often unpredictable and uncontrollable circumstances? (Berkowitz, 2013) Opportunities Maslow’s hierarchy of needs Fredrick Herzberg’s motivational theory Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership theory Options What possible solutions do they have? Different types of motivation that could be implemented in this situation Do nothing as one option Evaluation Look at how to implement this Financial costs Complexity to lead to recommendation What type of Motivation would you pick and why? Conclusion Look at the broader picture and towards the future and where you could implement this in similar situations in the future. References Berkowitz, B. (2013). Recognizing the Challenges of Leadership. [On-line]. The Community toolbox. Available from: http://ctb. ku. du/en/tablecontents/sub_section_main_1126. aspx [Accessed 25/05/2013]. Oxford University Press, (2013). Oxford Dictionaries. [On-line]. Oxford University Press. Available from: http://oxforddictionaries. com/definition/english/manager [Accessed 25/05/2013]. Oxford University Press, (2013). Oxford Dictionaries. [On-line]. Oxford University Press. Available from: http://oxforddictionaries. com/definition/english/leader [Accessed 25/05/2013]. Jago, A. G. (1982). Leadership: Perspectives in theory and research. Management Science, 28(3), 315-336. Clark, D. 2013). Concepts of Leadership. A Big Dog, Little Dog and Knowledge Jump Production. [On-line]. Available from: http://www. nwlink. com/~donclark/leader/ahold/trait_process_leadership. png [Accessed on 27/05/2013]. http://management. about. com/od/policiesandprocedures/g/manager1. htm The Wall Street Journal. (2013). What is the Difference Between Management and Leadership?. [On-line]. Available from: http://guides. wsj. com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/what-is-the-difference-between-management-and-leadership/ [Accessed 25/05/2013].