Manager Should Be a Leader

manager should be a leader

What is leadership? How is it different from being a manager? How can leaders keep their finger on the pulse of what's happening, inspire others to high achievement, guide their team members through difficult decisions, and still have time to actually finish a cup of coffee while it's still warm? The solution is disarmingly simple: Ask questions. Listen to the answers. Ask some more questions. Give good answers to questions asked by others. Easier said than done.The Relationship of Leadership and Management

In general, the middle of the road viewpoints hold that:

1) although there are many overlaps, leadership and management are different things, involving differing skills, behaviors, and viewpoints;

2) those who use only leadership skills, behaviors, and viewpoints are ineffective in organizations that have significant administrative components;

3) those who use only management skills, behaviors, and viewpoints are ineffective in organizations that have significant human components; and

4) in organizations having both administrative and human components, only those who use an appropriate balance of management and leadership skills, behaviors, and viewpoints can be effective.

As an example, William Wallace (who most of us Anglos know as "Braveheart") would have been completely ineffective leading the Scots to victory over the English if he were to have used only management skills. Conversely, the proprietor of a financial management business would probably relate to her clients well but wouldn't make much money for them if she were to use only leadership skills.

Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, wrote that leadership is a facet of management. He wrote, "Leadership is just one of the many assets a successful manager must possess. Care must be taken in distinguishing between the two concepts. The main aim of a manager is to maximize the output of the organization through administrative implementation. To achieve this, managers must undertake the following functions:

* organization

* planning

* staffing

* directing

* controlling

Leadership is just one important component of the directing function."

If effective management requires us to practice good management skills and effective leadership requires us to practice good leadership skills, and both are needed to do our jobs as SGLs well; then first we need an understanding of what effective management and leadership skills are, and then we must understand how we can combine them to make us successful as SGLs.

Before we examine and evaluate each of these, a few definitions are in order:

Influencing Agent - the person doing the influencing

Target - the person being influenced

Dependent Influence - influence that depends on continued intervention by the influencing agent

Independent Influence - influence that continues without further intervention by the influencing agent

Surveillance - the supervision that the influencing agent exerts on the target

In the examples I use in the following paragraphs, the support group leader is the influencing agent and the peer visitation coordinator is the target.

Informational Power - For its strength, informational power relies on learning, which in turn, results in a change in understanding or viewpoint on the part of the target. What's more, the change is independent of the influencing agent and requires no surveillance. In communications designed to exert informational power, then, it's the persuasive content of the message that's important. To be persuasive, a message requires not only information, but it must be presented in a logical, believable, and compelling way. An example of the use of informational power is when a support group leader explains in clear detail to the coordinator of the peer visitation program who has a habit of using untrained people as visitors exactly why this is not a good practice. The explanation is even more persuasive if it is made clear, for example, that an untrained visitor once got the group in hot water by "selling" her own prosthetist to the new amputee. As it turned out, the prosthetist didn't do a satisfactory job and the amputee held the visitor and the group responsible. Once the visitation coordinator understands this, and understands the correct way that visitors should be selected, his or her behavior changes without further intervention by the support group leader.

Reward Power - For its power, reward relies on the promise of, and ability to deliver a reward in return for desired behavior. Rewards that are institutional, like raises, days off, perquisites, or promotions aren't available to us. That leaves us with personal rewards, like approval, attention, or agreement.

An example of reward power is when a support group leader tells the peer visitation coordinator who has a habit of using untrained people as visitors that some valuable right or advantage, like the ability to attend the ACA annual meeting at group expense, will be granted when it can be demonstrated that the coordinator is consistently using only trained visitors.

Coercive Power - Conversely, coercive power relies on the threat of punishment (plus the target's understanding that the influencing agent can, and if necessary will, deliver it). Again, punishments that are institutional in nature, like disciplinary action, loss of support, or removal of perquisites; are not available to us. That leaves us with personal coercive power, like disapproval or disagreement.

An example of personal coercive power is when the support group leader explains to the peer visitation coordinator that some valuable right or advantage will be taken away if he or she persists in using untrained visitors. I can't imagine what valuable right or advantage could be taken away from the visitation coordinator for non-compliance but I can visualize that the leader could "counsel" the visitation coordinator in strong terms and express "extreme disappointment" in his or her performance. These could be considered milder forms of coercion.

There are a couple of important limitations to reward and coercion, the most