Leadership and management are often mistaken to be the same thing but they are very different in essence, with the main difference being leaders have followers while managers have workers (Next Generation 2018).
What are the differences between leaders and managers?
Managers
In essence, managers manage with visible elements like behaviours leading towards compliance where the person managed does as the manager wants (Spodek 2017). Managers need to be able to implement and execute a vision, be able to direct to accomplish day-to-day efforts, to establish processes, standards, rules, and operating procedures (Monnappa 2018).
Leaders
On the other hand, leaders lead with emotions and motivations leading towards desire where the followers want to do what the leader is motivating them to do (Spodek 2017). They uphold honesty and integrity, inspires their people, have good communication skills and has the ability to challenge the status quo towards setting a precedence and making a difference (Monnappa 2018).
The Need for Both
There is a need for the combination of both leadership and management for an organization to be run successfully (Next Generation 2017). Leadership without management is akin to dreaming â having a vision, a mission, a change to implement but no one to ensure the implementation of the tasks (Spodek 2017).
Autocratic Leadership Style
For a company executing routine tasks that requires limited skills, an autocratic leadership works best (The Executive Connection 2018). Also known as authoritarian leadership, this is an aggressive leadership style that centers around control (Lazzari 2018). This leadership style is typically characterized by one individual taking control over all the decisions made within the team or organization with little to no input from the group (Cherry 2018). An autocratic leadership style can benefit an organization especially when the leader has a clear vision of the direction of the company and sets out to achieve it with key examples like Walt Disney and Steve Jobs (Lucas 2018). Other environments where an autocratic leadership can thrive includes an organization where everyone knows and understands the expectations, where quick decision-making is essential, or in situations where a confident leader who knows exactly what needs to happen and doesnât want input from others for example during a negotiation (Leonard 2018).
Transformational Leadership Style
The concept of transformational leadership begun in 1973 with James V. Downton, later built upon in 1978 by James Burns, and then in 1985 Bernard M. Bass incorporated the ways to measure the success of the leadership style (White 2018). Transformational leadership happens when âleaders broaden and elevate the interests of their employees, when they generate awareness and acceptance of the purposes and mission of the group when they stir their employees to look beyond their own self-interest for the good of the groupâ (Bass 1990). An organization that is trying to innovate, to adapt to change, to be open to new values and ideas will benefit from a strong transformational leader (Chandrayan 2017).
Both these leadership styles thrive in different situations and are ideal for different environments and therefore supports the statement by Chartered Management Institute (2012) that the ideal approach varies according to the situation and characteristics of the individuals and that there is no one-size fits all version for leadership styles.
Examples of Transformational Leadership
A good example of a transformational leader is Sundar Pichai the CEO of Google (Ewell 2016). Pichai focuses more on the success of other over his own explaining that most of the work of a leader is to ensure that the people you lead are successful, that it is not about trying to make yourself successful but about motivating other to overcome their barriers to achieve success (Towers 2017).
Th e second richest billionaire in the world in 2018, Bill Gates the former CEO and founder of Microsoft is also a good example of a transformational leader (Kroll & Dolan 2018; Chris 2015). Bill Gates had many qualities of a good leader including but it is he passion to help others become successful that truly sets him apart as a transformational leader (Lode Plus 2018). Bill Gates had a slight combination of Autocratic Leadership Styles with his demanding and abrasive attitude and Transformational Leadership Style where he encourages creativity and innovation, and recognizes the achievements of the individuals and/or the team (Gillard 2018).
As a member of a team
My ideal leader would be a transformational leader who allows me to share my ideas, to try out new technology, to innovate, and for the leader to be able to provide insight that will allow me to grow and contribute better to the team and the organization.
(764 words)
References:
Bass, B.M. (1990) âFrom Transactional to Transformational Leadership: Learning to Share the Visionâ DiscoverThought [online] available from < http://discoverthought.com/Leadership/References_files/Bass%20leadership%201990.pdf> [17 October 2018]
Chandrayan, P. (2017) âTo Be A Transformational Leader, You Donât Always Need To Be Innovative, You Just Need To Be Emotionally Intelligent!â CodeBurst [online] available from https://codeburst.io/to-be-a-transformational-leader-you-dont-always-need-to-be-innovative-you-just-need-to-be-26d5f1cf6cf9> [17 October 2018]
Chartered Management Institute (2012) Understanding Management Styles Checklist 236 [online] available from <https://www.managers.org.uk/~/media/Files/Campus%20CMI/Checklists%20First%20Management%20Role/Understanding%20management%20styles.ashx> [18 October 2018]
Cherry, K. (2018) âAutocratic Leadershipâ VeryWell Mind [online] available from < https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-autocratic-leadership-2795314> [17 October 2018]
Chris, J. (2016) â7 Bill Gates Leadership Style Lessonsâ Joseph Chris [online] available from < http://www.josephchris.com/7-bill-gates-leadership-style-lessons> [17 October 2018]
Conley, R. (2016) âThe Single Biggest Difference Between Leaders and Managersâ Leading With Trust [online] available from https://leadingwithtrust.com/2016/04/10/the-single-biggest-difference-between-leaders-and-managers/> [17 October 2018]
Ewell, R. (2016) âGoogle I/O 2016: 12 Leadership Qualities of Googleâs Sundar Pichaiâ Digital Scribbler Inc [online] available from https://digitalscribbler.com/2016/05/19/sundarpichai-google-io-2016-12/> [17 October 2018]
Gillard, M. (2018) Bill Gates Leadership Styleâ Leadership and Development [online] available from < https://leadership-and-development.com/bill-gates-leadership-style/> [17 October 2018]
Goleman, D. (2000) âLeadership That Gets Resultsâ Harvard Business Review [online] available from <https://hbr.org/2000/03/leadership-that-gets-results> [17 October 2018]
Hoffower, H. (2018) âBill Gates is worth $95 billion and he plans to give most of it away â here’s how he spends his money now, from a luxury car collection to incredible real estateâ Business Insider [online] available from < https://www.businessinsider.com/billionaire-bill-gates-net-worth-spending-2018-8/?IR=T> [17 October 2018]
Kroll, L. & Dolan, K. (2018) âMeet The Members Of The Three-Comma Clubâ Forbes [online] available from < https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/#58c8aab1251c> [17 October 2018]
Leonard, K. (2018) âAdvantages of an Autocratic Leadership Styleâ Chron [online] available from < https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-autocratic-leadership-style-2980.html> [17 October 2018]
Lode Plus (2018) Bill Gates: A Transformational Leader [online] available from <https://lodeplus.com/bill-gates-a-transformational-leader/> [18 October 2018]
Lucas, S. (2018) âPros and Cons of Autocratic Leadershipâ The Balance Careers [online] available from <https://www.thebalancecareers.com/autocratic-leadership-pros-and-cons-4173702> [17 October 2018]
Monnappa, A. (2018) âWhatâs the Difference Between Leadership and Management?â SimpliLearn [online] available from < https://www.simplilearn.com/leadership-vs-management-difference-article > [17 October 2018]
Next Generation (2018) The Difference Between Leadership and Management [online] available from < https://www.nextgeneration.ie/blog/the-difference-between-leadership-and-management/> [18 October 2018]
Spodek, J. (2017) âThe Difference Between Leadership and Managementâ Inc. [online] available from <https://www.inc.com/joshua-spodek/the-difference-between-leadership-and-management.html> [17 October 2018]
Streitfeld, D. and Isaac,M. (2015) âSundar Pichai Will Lead Google With Users in Mindâ The New York Times [online] available from < https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/business/sundar-pichai-will-lead-google-with-users-in-mind.html> [17 October 2018]
The Executive Connection (2018) 9 common leadership styles: Which type of leader are you? [online] available from https://tec.com.au/resource/9-common-leadership-styles-which-type-of-leader-are-you/> [18 October 2018]
Towers, P. (2017) âLeadership Strategy: How The CEOâs of The Worldâs Top 5 Tech Companies Choose To Leadâ Task Pigeon Blog [online] available from < https://blog.taskpigeon.co/leadership-strategy/> [17 October 2018]
Leading in a Changing World 
Hi Charmaine, nice example on Google and Microsoft I, what is the disadvantages you observe in transformational leadership?
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Thanks, Nancy for taking the time to read the post đ
In my opinion, one the main disadvantage of this leadership style is that requires the all followers to buy into the vision of the leader and this could be dangerous due to the fact that not all leaders are ethical. If the vision communicated to the followers are not ethical, the results could be bad.
Another disadvantage of this leadership style is that it can lead to employee burnout – if constant productivity at high levels are required for a prolonged period of time with unreasonable or short deadlines solely to achieve the vision of the Transformational leader, this could lead to the followers burning out.
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Wow what a great read. I would also like to know what are some of the limitations of transformational leadership?
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Thank you for taking the time to read, Anuja đ I really appreciate it.
Transformational leaders are awesome because they look at the bigger picture and how they can transform the entire organization towards a new path. Therein lies the limitation as well – they tend to focus only at the big picture and this leads them overlook the details that is required to achieve the goal.
Additionally, the transformational leader’s focus on the bigger picture also leads them to overlook protocols or processes in order for them to achieve their visions faster. In many ways, the transformational leadership style aligns more towards the teleological side of the ethical theories where the results outweighs the action/duty.
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Very good job Charmaine! I observed that you emphasize greatly on the advantages of transformational leadership. Do you think there are any disadvantages on this leadership style?
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Thanks, Jean!
One of the disadvantages of this leadership style is that the leader tends to be drawn to people who agrees with them or buys into their vision. This might lead them to ignore members of the organization who do not agree or are not as enthusiastic about their vision or message. This would lead to a division of the organization between those who follow and those who don’t.
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WOW. Beautiful. Any personal experience of any of the leadership styles mentioned ?
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Thanks, Jered đ
Yes, I’ve had the opportunity to experience an autocratic leader as well as a transformational leader.
With the autocratic leader, we knew exactly what we had to do and how to achieve it and it did not involve a long discussion of what we can do to contribute. We all knew clearly what our tasks were and we executed it achieving the goal in a short period of time.
With the transformational leader, we had the opportunity to be involved in the decision-making process and at the same time we focused on how our individual growth could positively impact the company and achieve the ultimate goal of the leader. We worked on how to achieve the shared vision and it involves a lot of innovation, trial-and-errors, and risk-taking both by the leader and by the followers. We managed to transform the organization and change its path but it took a longer time with many communication sessions in between.
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Hello charmaine, well explained about the difference between mangers and leader. The example of google and Microsoft were interesting. Could you state a limitation of transformational leadership?
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Thanks, Vaseem! đ
A disadvantage of the transformational leadership style would be that the freedom given to the followers to think outside the box, to be creative, to innovate which leads to freedom in work culture, guidelines, deadlines, and organizational structure may backfire when it is taken for granted. This will lead to poor productivity and taking a longer route towards achieving the vision.
Additionally, the transformational leadership style also lacks structure which is often times needed by the followers and even the leader itself. The lack of structure aligned to the freedom in culture above may lead to the compromization of processes, protocols, unity within the team, and ultimately – team efficiency.
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