Many books and researches talk about differences between “manager” and “leader” and there are much discussion on its understanding towards the two. I like to emphasize here that how deep people try to differentiate the manger and the leader; I do strongly believe that “to be an effective manager, you have to be a good leader as well!
How the manager can manage their people if they don’t have any leading skill? People will not be happy to be there for the manager to manage if he or she lacks of leadership. My suggestion in this case is, an effective manager should become just a “star employee” because he could be super at work, but does not carry any skill to lead his subordinates” and “to be a good leader, he/she must be also an effective manager because if leaders does not understand the work problem in depth, how can the leader successfully inspire people. With limited knowledge in the field of work, the leader will not be able to relevantly encourage and motivate their people. Who will trust the advice from a motivating but unknowledgeable leader? My suggestion in this case is, that the leader should become only a “hugger” who provides free hug to motivate employees but for the work problem – hah,
employee – you better guide and lead yourself”.
All in all, if I am asked to compare “manager” and “leader”, I think of a few sentences as below:
- “managing is a science and leading is an art”.
- “managing is a knowledge and leading is an attitude”
- “managing is legs to walk and leading is hands to pat”
That is my thought in brief about manager and leader on how it is inseparable. Manager and leader is a “man-leader”, a person who shows the way and gives the light for people to excel.
(Copyright) Nate-tra Dhevabanchachai, 2009, General Manager, Salaya
Pavilion Hotel and Training Center, Mahidol University International College, www.salayapavilion.com and Honorary Director, Mai-BS
(Thailand) Co., Ltd., http://mai-bs.com
“managing is a science and leading is an art”. I think this about says it in a nutshell.