Reminiscence

Friday, January 13, 2006

Are you a leader or manager?


I saw this article on The Straits Times on 11 Jan 06. It's a good read. Enjoy!
[Click on the image to read]

posted by Dee at 1:44 PM

6 Comments:

  • This is an interesting article! It was mentioned somewhere in the article that a leader encourages participation. If you study situational leadership, encouraging participation is ideal for followers who are either willing or able. However, encouraging participation for followers that are neither willing nor able would be to cause unecessary stress on the part of the follower. You'll be surprised, but sometimes some people are just better off being managed! Heh heh...

    By Blogger INK, at 9:43 PM  

  • yes...i agree with what u mentioned about situtational leadership. This article is talking about the ideal situtation where the followers are earnest to participate.

    Leader can try to move the followers from unwilling to willing. A process i believe.

    By Blogger Dee, at 12:05 AM  

  • Hi !
    Interesting article, and of course I agree that the best way to reach excellence is through consensus rather than via authority misuse.
    However, I don't agree with the use of the word "leader" and "manager". The leader is the good, the manager is the devil... it's a reducing approach for me. First, being a manager is more a functional aspect of a job, where being a leader is more a behaviour, or even a style. A manager can be a leader, and a leader sometimes has to manage (a group, a project, a budget). Managers are as necessary as leaders : managers have to build and handle a suitable structural organization of their group or department to allow other employees to work properly and with some (but definitely not too much) essential guidelines (like, if you send an order, I prefer to validate it before we pay, especially if it is for more than k$50 !). The leader has to build and drive a team so that each member (starting by her/himself) works in the same, right, direction, and for that, (s)he has to clarify the demand, to set relevant goals, to identify members skills and tackle their weaknesses through proper development. There are excellent managers and loosy leaders, and vice versa.
    Well, all this to say I agree with the author on many point (not all of them), but I would have written this article a totally different way, starting with more appropriate use of words ! ;)
    See ya !
    Nicolas.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:01 PM  

  • Nico, I totally agree with you!!

    A person can be both of leader and manager. Like in this case, I believe the author is trying to emphasize the behavioural and mindset of different type of leaders or managers. It's just the terms that are used to differentiate the different behaviorial and mindset and the author use "leader" and "Manager".

    By Blogger Dee, at 12:37 AM  

  • Yes, I'm sure the author wanted to compare these 2 aspects, and not to criticize managers themselves.
    I believe that "leader" is a good term to speak about people who will manage to gather people around them and convince them to follow her/his way. In french, we usually use the same word.
    But "manager" is slightly more ambiguous to me, and not necessarily relevant... for instance, there are "managers" who don't manage any team or even a single employee (what the have to manage is something else, like profitable relationships with important customers), so they never use authority simply because they have nobody to use it on.

    Here is my view about how should be team management... If we take the example of a given project, the actual leader should not always be the "project leader". Actually, I believe that in many case it is normal if the actual leader change several times a day ! Around the table, for a brainstorm or a planning review, maybe the project leader can drive, but around a lab bench the technician will and around a production line the setter will.

    Imagine an Oil Company boat. On board there are many people like the Oil Co CEO (himself !!!), Logistic Manager (himself !!!), the customer chemical company CEO (etc), the boat company CEO (...), George W Bush (!!!), the Pope (???), the Dalaï Lama ( ;D ), Madonna, Tracy Chapman, David Cronenberg, Mickey Mouse......... well, for me, whoever the passenger/crew, the leading manager should always stay the captain of the boat. The good thing is that, if I'm correct, this is the way it is stated in international seas laws.
    Wow, time to go & work a bit ! ;)
    Nicolas.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:50 PM  

  • At work, a leader is appointed based on expertise and able to communicate and lead team. Leader may change in a project depending on the needs and requriements. Irregardless, the leader has to be in control and overall in-charge of the project. He/she needs to know the roles and responsbilities of the team so that he/she can draw the skills out of the individuals on his/her team, in order that each member can participate fully in the project. No easy task. The leader is not able to do everything and he needs to manage the team to make sure everything is done according to the plan.

    By Blogger Dee, at 4:15 PM  

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