a manager, people have to be good policy followers and implementers as they are the people who are responsible to get the work done by other people. Hence, many times, visionary capabilities might be restricted when following a strict organization’s policy.
A good leader must inspire people because he is responsible to lead them in a particular direction so he must know how to inspire, when to inspire, who to inspire and what to use as inspiration tool. He must know the characteristics and requirements of his group so that he could use them as tools for leading the people.
On the other hand, a manager is a man of procedural knowledge who is responsible for ensuring that his subordinates are following the procedures and laws laid down by the management. Often, his own ideas might get crossed with the organizations’ set procedures so in that case, he has to follow the rules and might not be able to inspire others with freedom.
3) Change driven
Business management and leadership have one major difference in today’s organizations; leaders are more change driven and dynamic while managers have routine responsibilities and job descriptions. Managers have more technical knowledge, more practical job descriptions and projects or target based tasks which are performed on specific lines. Leader has the margin to go beyond routine pattern and experiment with modifications, introduce improvements and innovate. He serves as the source of change in the organization.
Synergic integration of business management and leadership
As discussed earlier, leadership is an essential managerial function but it has been observed that it is greatly discouraged by the organizations due to the extensive liberty and freedom offered in this role. So, organizations allow managers to direct employees, control the resources and coordinate the activities but the leading function is mostly restricted where a manager has complete autonomy of decision making and taking initiatives. Business management and leadership can be best integrated in the role of a Managing Leader where a manager has innate leadership qualities and he knows well how to lead his people, motivates them and be their mentor. A managing leader takes initiatives and shows his subordinates how to perform their jobs, trains them how to be productive for the organization and engages in their personal professional growths.
On the other hand, if business management and leadership are integrated in the role of Leading Manager, then this emphasizes upon a manager leading his subordinates from the front too. This particular skill can be developed in the managers by training and development programs of leadership. Managers who only direct their employees to perform the tasks are NOT leading managers. So, as an organization, you need to decide today whether you want to produce managing leaders or just managers. Giving them the right autonomy and training them to lead the people not only motivates your workforce but it also ensures your long term survival.