Leadership and Management “The world is full of managers and desperately short of leaders – real leaders.” Before we start discussing about leadership and management, we must have a clear understanding of what the terms ‘leaders and managers’ and ‘leadership and management’ mean, because these words are often used interchangeably. Many people think that there is no difference between these two terms and therefore think that a Leader must be a Manager, or the other way round; every Manager must be a Leader. Mostly, managers are looked upon as administrators – writing business plans, setting budgets and monitoring progress. On the other hand, leaders inspire people and organisations to change. To put the difference between leadership and management clearly, the former can be defined as the relationship between the leader and the led that can strengthen the organisation while the latter can be defined as a function that should be exercised in any business. I have come across some very good and informative cases on this topic, developed by IBS Case Development Centre . Are leadership and management independent of each other or vice versa? Let’s take a look. Many experts are of the opinion that leadership and management are not exclusive of each other. So, what happens when both management and leadership come together? The combination of leadership with management leads to success because the vision and strategy which are a part of leadership is backed up with the activities in management such as planning, budgeting, and operations, to see the vision achieved. Similarly, when leadership is without management it can influence or inspire the workforce by relying on its trust and respect. It thus, inspires to accomplish given tasks by providing them with the necessary resources to fulfil the requirements of those tasks. Therefore, it can be said that the concept of leadership is relevant to any aspect of ensuring effectiveness in organisations and in managing change. Understanding the concept of leadership requires more than reading a few articles or fantasizing about what great leaders should be. So, is there a parallel approach to the concepts of leadership and management in organisations? Are they being looked upon as separate entities or as one? The question still remains. Some cases developed by IBS Case Development Centre on the topics of leadership , management and make a good reading. They are available at www.ibscdc.org . Some of them which I found really informative are:
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Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS): Leadership Lessons ,
Corrado Passera Restructuring Poste Italiane and Banca Intesa: The Leadership Style of the Corporate Savior ,
MindTree Consulting: Designing and Delivering its Mission and Vision ,
