Leadership vs. Management and Leadership Styles

“Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire teammates and customers.” – Robin S. Sharma

So what is leadership? According to F.John Reh (2017) Leadership is the timeless practice of guiding others in pursuit of a goal, destination or desired outcome. At the most fundamental level, a leader is someone who motivates, inspires and guides others toward pre-established goals.

The concept of leadership over time has changed; therefore the role of a leader has also changed. Leaders now focus more on identifying and developing talent whilst also trying to create a healthy environment that allows individuals to apply their talents and skills in search of valuable objectives. Creating this kind of effective working environment requires that the leader focuses on instilling and reinforcing key values, on modelling proper behaviours, and finally on implementing a sense of accountability to assist teams to succeed with their obligated tasks. Leadership revolves around vision, ideas, direction, and has more to do with inspiring people as to direction and goals than with day-to-day implementation.

"Leadership is like beauty: it's hard to define, but you know it when you see it" -Warren Bennis

Although leadership and management comprise of different and unique functions and activities it is often assumed that a person in a managerial role is a leader. Not all leaders manage and not all managers exercise leadership (Lunenburg, 2011). Leadership and management must go hand in hand. They are not the same thing. But they are often linked, and complementary. Simply put, the manager’s job is to plan, organize and coordinate. The leader’s job is to inspire and motivate.

A manager is an employee of a company or an organization who is bestowed the responsibility of carrying out the four important functions of management – planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Managers maintain the status quo, they specialise on conformance to the standard, they manage their teams and individuals and they organise, direct and control to achieve goals.

There are different types of leadership, namely:

Autocratic

The autocratic leadership style allows managers to make decisions alone without the input of others. Managers possess total authority and impose their will on employees. No one challenges the decisions of autocratic leaders. E.g. Steve Jobs

Coercive leadership

The coercive leader demands immediate compliance with their orders. The coercive leader has a style that is best described as: Do what I tell you, or else. The coercive leader accomplishes tasks by bullying and sometimes even demeaning the followers. E.g. Adolf Hitler

Laissez-Faire

A laissez-faire leader lacks direct supervision of employees and fails to provide regular feedback to those under his supervision. Highly experienced and trained employees requiring little supervision fall under the laissez-faire leadership style. E.g. Warren Buffet

Democratic Leadership

In this leadership style, subordinates are involved in making decisions. Unlike autocratic, this leadership is centred on subordinates’ contributions. The democratic leader holds final responsibility, but he or she is known to delegate authority to other people, who determine work projects. E.g. Nelson Mandela.

Charismatic Leadership

In this leadership, the charismatic leader manifests his or her revolutionary power. Charisma does not mean sheer behavioural change. It actually involves a transformation of followers’ values and beliefs. Therefore, this distinguishes a charismatic leader from a simply populist leader who may affect attitudes towards specific objects, but who is not as prepared as the charismatic leader is, to transform the underlying normative orientation that structures specific attitudes. E.g. Richard Branson

Blu Betty's leadership style:

Having prior experience in the retailing industry gave Colleen, Blu Betty CEO, a great point of reference when it came time to venture into and establish her own retail company. With Blu Betty, because the company was started as a family, that family mantra has remained with them throughout their business journey therefore the relationship between all internal stakeholders is one of trust, support and openness. According to Colleen, as a leader one has to understand that not everything they do can be done on their own. It’s virtually impossible, that is why teams are important to have. As a leader the most important job is to recruit the right individuals for every aspect of one’s business. Blu Betty’s skill set matches almost perfectly with the offering or niche of the Blu Betty individuals who are creative in: design, style, branding, and photograph. (Stakeholders abilities = Strength in organisation).

Colleen, Blu Betty CEO’s, leadership style is very democratic. According to Rose Johnson (2017) the democratic leadership style values the input of team members and peers, but the responsibility of making the final decision rests with the participative leader. Participative leadership boosts employee morale because employees make contributions to the decision-making process. It causes them to feel as if their opinions matter. When a company needs to make changes within the organization, the participative leadership style helps employees accept changes easily because they play a role in the process. This style meets challenges when companies need to make a decision in a short period.

In Blu Betty their internal stakeholders can present their opinions, visions and ideas and have a say that will be heard and considered. Their individual voices within the organisation are appreciated and valued, which makes their working environment enjoyable and their relationships within the organisation strong, with everyone playing a role in successfully keeping the business afloat. Colleen understands that by having different people working in different fields they are able to see the organisations through multiple different lenses therefore they can see where the organisation is strong and where it can improve further therefore they can have various ideas to choose from.

References:

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