What is the difference between management and leadership Essay

What is the difference between management and leadership - Essay Example Leadership refers to the task of guiding people towards the achievement of some specific goals and objectives. According to Cherry (2010), leaders encourage their followers to utilize their full potential and get new opportunities to learn. They view the need for change as an opportunity for their followers to grow in their professional lives and increase their levels of productivity (Elkington, 2010). They motivate people to use their skills and abilities to get their personal, social, political, or organizational needs and demands fulfilled. The role of leaders in the process of goals achievement is to identify the need of the followers, make them aware of their responsibilities to fulfill those needs, design and give an effective strategy to the followers, and motivate them to continue putting efforts to achieve the goals. On the other hand, managers do things in a programmed manner. They do everything to fulfill organizational needs and hardly focus on the needs of employees. Another difference between leaders and managers is the way they develop policies. Managers always think incrementally and set priorities and goals according to the needs and limitations of the company’s policy. On the other hand, leaders think radically towards bringing change in the current policies and organizational structure. They do everything to meet the interests of their followers. This difference shows that managers always have to follow the policy of their respective organizations in carrying out any job related activity, whereas leaders are independent in doing whatever they want and whichever way they want. They listen to the concerns of their followers and guide them in all phases of all social, political, and organizational movements. They work for collective interests to get things done collectively. Managers monitor and control the activities of their employees. They do so to achieve