Leadership and Strategic Management (1) MN7185

What makes you a Great Leader.

We all know that there are people in this world, call superhero models. Some are describing them as great leaders and great managers. Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa are known as some of the great leaders in the world. Some of them command, some has many followers, some have superhuman qualities, some of them were worshipped by many people, people say they are the role models for people’s life. People argue that leaders are born not made, but some argue that leaders are made.

There are organizations in the world, which are always trying to develop people for better results in the organization. They send people for training programs, coaching sessions and many leadership programs to develop individuals’ skills.

But we have a question, that has those organizations developed the leaders as great leaders to their organizations?

In this 21^st century, most of the organizations managed by different managers and leaders. And on these organizations management is co-ordinates with people to achieve the goals and objectives with the control, management is always concerned about maintaining routine work and always maintain the organization's stability. While leaders influence, direction setting and giving a vision with innovative ideas to achieving global results of the organization (Grint, 2005).

There are some of the differences in Management and Leadership.

Manager	Leader
Is Efficiency	Is Effectiveness
Doing things right	Doing the right things
Efficient The performance which secures the obedience of the people	Communicating Vision
Acting to limit choice	Innovates
Running organization like machines	Receptive to change
Harness people to achieve a common goal	Focus on developing the people
Legal – rational authority	Reliant on Charismatic authority

Management skills

Leadership Skills

Conclusion

We read and learned more about what Management and Leadership is. But what makes us a great leader in the 21st-century world? in this era all things are more global, digitally enabled, Transparent, in the fastest speed and more innovative flow. Relying on the traditional practices you will stop growing as a leader.

So how can we develop and define leadership in the 21^st century? If you can answer to following three questions, this can be defined easily.

• 1.      Where are you looking to anticipate CHANGE?
• 2.      What is the diversity measure of your NETWORK?
• 3.      Are you courageous enough to abandon the PAST?

I request you to watch this video clip from TED Talks done by Roselinde Torres, from this link. Thanks.

References

Abraham, 1992. Managers and Leaders: Are They Different?. Managers and Leaders, March - April, p. 1.

Grint, K., 2005. Leadership: Limits and Possibilities (Management, Work and Organisations). 2005 edition (20 Jan. 2005) ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.