Amal al Marzougi

Introduction to Business Management

BUMG 1103

‘Choose one transferable management skills and discuss the impact on

effective management. Justify your choice.’

Lecturer: Richard Common

Read through this example of an academic essay on:

“Choose one transferable management skill and discuss the impact on

effective management. Justify your answer using academic literature”

This report has been produced especially for this exercise and is not
an actual student report.

Highlight areas for improvement throughout the report in terms

of its structure, content, research, presentation and writing style.
Discuss what feedback you would give to the author of this
report, if you were responsible for marking it.
Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do
the right thing. - Warren Bennis, Ph.D. "On Becoming a Leader”

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. . . . The leader
works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss
drives.
- Theodore Roosevelt

Good leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and willpower,
you can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a
never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience. To
inspire your workers into higher levels of teamwork, there are certain
things you must be, know, and, do. These do not come naturally, but are
acquired through continual work and study. Good leaders are continually
working and studying to improve their leadership skills; they are NOT
resting on their laurels.

Introduction:

Before we get started, let’s define leadership. Leadership is a process by which

a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the
organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leaders carry
out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values,
ethics, character, knowledge, and skills. Although your position as a manager,
supervisor, lead, etc. gives you the authority to accomplish certain tasks and
objectives in the organization, this power does not make you a leader...it simply
makes you the boss. Leadership differs in that it makes the followers want to
achieve high goals, rather than simply bossing people around.

The Two Most Important Keys to Effective Leadership

A Hay's study examined over 75 key components of employee satisfaction.

They found that: Trust and confidence in top leadership was the single most
reliable predictor of employee satisfaction in an organization. They also found
that effective communication by leadership in three critical areas was the key
to winning organizational trust and confidence:

1. Helping employees understand the company's overall business strategy.

2. Helping employees understand how they contribute to achieving key
business objectives.
3. Sharing information with employees on both how the company is doing
and how an employee's own division is doing - relative to strategic
business objectives.

So in a nutshell -- you must be trustworthy and you have to be able to

communicate a vision of where the organization needs to go.
To help you be, know, and do; one should follow these eleven principles of
leadership:

1. Know yourself and seek self-improvement - In order to know yourself,

you have to understand your be, know, and do, attributes. Seeking self-
improvement means continually strengthening your attributes. This can be
accomplished through self-study, formal classes, reflection, and interacting
with others.
2. Be technically proficient - As a leader, you must know your job and have
a solid familiarity with your employees' tasks.
3. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions - Search
for ways to guide your organization to new heights. And when things go
wrong, they always do sooner or later -- do not blame others. Analyze the
situation, take corrective action, and move on to the next challenge.
4. Make sound and timely decisions - Use good problem solving, decision
making, and planning tools.
5. Set the example - Be a good role model for your employees. They must
not only hear what they are expected to do, but also see. We must
become the change we want to see - Mahatma Gandhi
6. Know your people and look out for their well-being - Know human
nature and the importance of sincerely caring for your workers.
7. Keep your workers informed - Know how to communicate with not only
them, but also seniors and other key people.
8. Develop a sense of responsibility in your workers - Help to develop
good character traits that will help them carry out their professional
responsibilities.
9. Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished -
Communication is the key to this responsibility.
10. Train as a team - Although many so called leaders call their organization,
department, section, etc. a team; they are not really teams...they are just a
group of people doing their jobs.
11. Use the full capabilities of your organization - By developing a team
spirit, you will be able to employ your organization, department, section,
etc. to its fullest capabilities.

Styles of Leadership

Leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction,

implementing plans, and motivating people. There are three different styles of
leadership: authoritarian (autocratic), participative (democratic), and
delegative (free reign). Although most leaders use all three styles, one of
them becomes the dominate one.

Authoritarian (autocratic)

This type is used when the leader tells her employees what she wants done and how she
wants it done, without getting the advice of her people. Some of the appropriate
conditions to use it is when you have all the information to solve the problem, you are
short on time, and your employees are well motivated. Some people think that this style
includes yelling, using demeaning language, and leading by threats and abuse of power.
This is not the authoritarian style...it is an abusive, unprofessional style of leadership.
However, if you have the time and you want to gain more commitment and
motivation from your employee, then you should use the participative style.

Participative (democratic)

This type of style involves the leader including one or more employees in on the
decision making process (determining what to do and how to do it). However, the
leader maintains the final decision making authority. Using this style is not a sign of
weakness, it is a sign of strength that your employees will respect. This is normally
used when you have some of the information, and your employees have some of the
information. This allows them to become part of the team and allows you to make a
better decision

Delegative (free reign) also known as laissez faire

In this style, the leader allows the employees to make the decision. However,
the leader is still responsible for the decisions that are made. This is used
when employees are able to analyze the situation and determine what needs
to be done and how to do it. You cannot do everything! You must set priorities
and delegate certain tasks.

What is the difference between management and leadership?

It is a question that has been asked more than once and also answered in
different ways. The biggest difference between managers and leaders is the
way they motivate the people who work or follow them, and this sets the tone
for most other aspects of what they do. Many people are both. They have
management jobs, but they realise that you cannot buy hearts, especially to
follow them down a difficult path, and so act as leaders too.

Managers have subordinate

By definition, managers have subordinates - unless their title is honorary and

given as a mark of seniority, in which case the title is a misnomer and their
power over others is other than formal authority.

Authoritarian, transactional style

Managers have a position of authority vested in them by the company, and

their subordinates work for them and largely do as they are told. Management
style is transactional, in that the manager tells the subordinate what to do, and
the subordinate does this not because they are a blind robot, but because
they have been promised a reward (at minimum their salary) for doing so.

Work focus

Managers are paid to get things done (they are subordinates too), often within
tight constraints of time and money. They thus naturally pass on this work
focus to their subordinates.
Seek comfort

An interesting research finding about managers is that they tend to come from
stable home backgrounds and led relatively normal and comfortable lives.
This leads them to be relatively risk-averse and they will seek to avoid conflict
where possible. In terms of people, they generally like to run a 'happy ship'.

Leaders have followers

Leaders do not have subordinates - at least not when they are leading. Many
organisational leaders do have subordinates, but only because they are also
managers. But when they want to lead, they have to give up formal
authoritarian control, because to lead is to have followers, and following is
always a voluntary activity.

Charismatic, transformational style

Telling people what to do does not inspire them to follow you. You have to
appeal to them, showing how following them will lead to their hearts' desire.
They must want to follow you enough to stop what they are doing and
perhaps walk into danger and situations that they would not normally consider
risking.

People focus

Although many leaders have a charismatic style to some extent, this does not
require a loud personality. They are always good with people, and quiet styles
that give credit to others (and takes blame on themselves) are very effective
at creating the loyalty that great leaders engender. Although leaders are good
with people, this does not mean they are friendly with them. In order to keep
the mystique of leadership, they often retain a degree of separation and
aloofness. This does not mean that leaders do not pay attention to tasks - in
fact they are often very achievement-focused. What they do realize, however,
is the importance of enthusing others to work towards their vision.

Seek risk

In the same study that showed managers as risk-averse, leaders appeared as

risk-seeking, although they are not blind thrill-seekers. When pursuing their
vision, they consider it natural to encounter problems and hurdles that must
be overcome along the way. They are thus comfortable with risk and will see
routes that others avoid as potential opportunities for advantage and will
happily break rules in order to get things done. A surprising number of these
leaders had some form of handicap in their lives which they had to overcome.
Some had traumatic childhoods, some had problems such as dyslexia, others
were shorter than average.

In summary
This table summarises the above (and more) and gives a sense of the
differences between being a leader and being a manager. There is, of course,
a whole spectrum between either ends of these scales along which each
person can range.

Subject Leader Manager

Essence Change Stability
Focus Leading people Managing work
Have Followers Subordinates
Seeks Vision Objectives
Detail Sets direction Plans detail
Power Personal charisma Formal authority
Appeal to Heart Head
Energy Passion Control
Dynamic Proactive Reactive
Persuasion Sell Tell
Style Transformational Transactional
Exchange Excitement for work Money for work
Risk Takes risks Minimises risks
Rules Breaks rules Makes rules
Conflict Uses conflict Avoids conflict
Direction New roads Existing roads
Blame Takes blame Blames others

Word count: 1699

Bibliography:

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leader.html

http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/articles/manager_leader.htm