Principles of Management and Leadership free essay sample

To fully explain the relationship between Leadership and Management we need to appreciate that the two go hand in hand, they are by no means the same thing but they complement each other when driving any team to perform and exceed targets within a business. The manager’s job is very task-focused. They often have to follow company procedures and guidelines to ensure department KPI’s and objectives are achieved. They are heavily involved with the planning and co-ordinating of the team. The leadership role is much more people focused, ensuring that the team understands what their role is within achieving both department and business objectives, the leader provides the motivation and drive for someone to achieve (McPheat,2013). Bennis (2003) composed a list of differences between the manager and the leader two of which I have detailed here as I think these help differentiate the difference between the two; ` The manager maintains the leader develops’, `the manager fo cuses on systems and structure, the leader focuses on the people’. Daisy Group PLC’s business organisational objective is to be the UK’s number one communications provider. My management and leadership role takes on many styles to meet the needs of different situations when managing a team of 10 credit controllers in order to achieve this business goal. As explained by Goleman (1996) a good leader must be emotionally sensitive to know which styles to adopt depending on the different situation. Within his book 6 styles are outlined, Visionary, Coaching, Affiliative, Democratic, Pacesetting and Commanding; I believe I adopt all these styles in different situations. For example due to the diversity of Daisy as a business and the rate at which products and processes change I often have to take on a very Coaching style to ensure the team is kept up to speed with any developments, this not only helps my team members constantly improve their performance it increases employee satisfaction which reduces staff turnover within the  business. I think I am also a very democratic leader; I value each individuals input and encourage my team to generate fresh ideas in order to help us achieve. As a leader I like to lead by example, I like to approach my work with enthusiasm and a positive attitude which is reflected in the team’s attitude toward their work. Department moral and employee attitude towards work are important factors in contributing to exceeding departmental targets and personal development. However, that said I think it is important for the team to respect you as a manager and understand that you are there to lead them to achieve. Colins (2001) believes that to become and effective leader you have to be humble, there’s no room for arrogance; you have to be willing to admit when you or your team have made a mistake and put measures in place to learn from them. A successful leader isn’t afraid to ask for help or advice, learning from others who are more experienced than you can only benefit you positively. He stresses the importance of discipline in your work; when committing to a course of action, no matter how difficult it is you must follow this through. Aidar recognises three core management responsibilities; achieving the task, managing the team and managing the individuals. When achieving the task it’s important to identify aims to ensure that the team understand clearly what they are working towards. These tend to be outlined within staff reviews /objectives. A manager will monitor progress towards the groups aim, for example in my post I report on Daily cash flow figures so the team know how close we are getting to achieving the monthly cash target at the end of the month. 2. Skills and Styles of Management and Leadership For this section I am going to compare the skills and styles of 2 very different leaders; Richard Branson founder of the Virgin Group and Steve Jobs founder of Apple Inc. Richard is not afraid to take risks and believes that his people are the foundation to his company’s success. `My philosophy is, put your employees first, your customers second and your investors third and in the end everyone will be happy’ (Inc, 2013). From researching his leadership style I would say that Richard is a transformational democratic leader, he likes to get other peoples input and develop on their ideas. Richard believes that praise goes much further than criticism in achieving results so he likes to lead his team using positive reinforcement. Richard  seems to be a very caring and involved leader who listens to everyone and is very professional in his leadership style, he is definitively a relationship-oriented leader who is good at aligning people and giving them emotional support and encouragement. He seems to fall into the segment of being a participative and consultative leader whilst his strong charisma seems to make anyone listen and follow him. Steve Jobs on the other hand has a very innovative leadership style; he was a perfectionist who had the courage to change his mind. Steve was a very unconventional leader, he was very `high-maintenance’ who demanded excellence from his staff and was known for his blunt delivery of criticism. It was his sheer genius combined with his ability to articulate his vision and bring everyone along on the journey plus the lessons learned in career setbacks that made it work. Steve was fired from Apple in 1985 and then returned in 1997 with a renewed sense of purpose. Steve Job controlled every area of the business in his quest for perfection he lead using a very situational leadership approach, he exhibited very directive behaviour. Employees were recruited into the business as specialists and put into roles that made the most of their specific strengths. Staff turnover was low. Jobs was passionate about his vision and as effective at communicating this to his staff which was reflected in their views of the business (McInerney, 2011). Managerial Task 1 – Delegating work to the Team When delegating work to the team it’s important to choose staff members that are capable of doing the work you are asking of them, this requires you to have a good knowledge of your team’s competencies. It’s not a necessity that they have done the work before as this is an ideal opportunity to discuss the task in hand with them and provide them with some coaching whilst they do it – aiding development. It’s important to include them in the delegation process, empower them to decide which tasks to do and when. Ensure that they know they are responsible for completing the task but accountability will still fall under the manager which is why the manager must support them in completing the task to a high standard. ,The manager must provide support throughout and ensure the project’s success through on-going questioning and monitoring; focusing on the results facilitates success and builds up trust within the manager-co-worker relationship. The team member may have a  different way of completing the task, as long as the correct result is achieved own initiative should be supported. Managerial Task 2 – Motivating employees Employees must be motivated if you want them to achieve the best results. All employees have different types of motivational factors that will lead them to achieve, being a manager is largely about learning what motivates each individual. Employees may be more motivated if they understand how they fit into the business, how they contribute to the business achieving its organisational objectives. The manager must eliminate de-motivators, what do they think is stopping them from achieving? Find out what motivates each individual by asking them during one to ones- financial, status, praise etc and discuss how these can be built into their job role. Another key motivating tool is making employees feel empowered; motivate them to find their own solutions to work instead of being told what to do. 3. Application of Theory in an Organisational Context Examples of when I have had to apply management and leadership theories within my role are when managing change within the department. There have been 2 recent instances when change has been introduced the first being the introduction of a new system across all Daisy offices and the second when the team had a switch round of ledgers to accommodate staff redundancies both of these where managed in the same way Daisy has recently rolled out a new in house developed system to all staff. As Daisy has acquired quite a few companies over the years with that has come new products and many different systems. The new system was developed to ensure that all staff are using a unified system, where all notes and customer details can be viewed centrally. Kubler and Ross stages to change Model helps explain the various stages that the team went through when experiencing this change and as a manager what I had to focus on; how I had to drive the Team to except the change. When focusing on this model you need to encourage each team member to fully pass through the stages before acceptance of change is sought. Denial stage; the team didn’t think credit control would be asked to use the new system because it couldn’t support their work; they were reflecting on the past and not thinking forward. During this period I as a manger had to  encourage the team to talk to me to find out why they had the feelings they did, was it because of insecurities; that they might not be able to use the new system and talk them through their worries giving them confidence and support, hopefully then they progressed onto the Resistance stage, during this stage the team accepted that there was a new system to use but refused to use it. They blamed others at having to have a new system. During this stage I had to again drive the team forward, help them understand and except that the change would be happening, the reason why the change needed to happen and how they would benefit from it. This was done by holding lots of discussions and coaching on the new system. Next they moved onto the exploration stage where they are able to see what positive impact the change will have on them, how it will make their job easier. During this stage I got feedback from the team to include them in the change, to get ideas of any developments they thought the system needed that would benefit them. This was done in a very formal group meeting session which lifted moral, enabled us to talk through each other’s issues including my own. Involving them directly in the change empowers them to except it quicker as they form a part of its development. A manager should support and encourage change not direct it. It is important to note here that different personality types react differently to change and so a manager really needs to know and manage the team in ways that benefit them. 4. Planning the Development of Management and Leadership Skills For this section I am going to consider a job role within Daisy Communications, this is a current job role of Retail Credit Manager. I will assess the leadership requirements for this role using the SWOT Analysis; Strengths Skills, including technical skills and also generic skills such as teamwork, leadership, initiative, organisation, verbal and written communication, and how they relate in to the needs of the position Personal characteristics – the ability to work hard under pressure, self-discipline etc Knowledge of the type of job and the industry Your qualifications and past work experiences dont quite match the job requirements, training will be needed to make progress Time and money will have to be spent on training, including possibly another course of study to increase your professionalism in this field The job is not one that will motivate you in the medium to long term The employer is recruiting for a specific position and career progression seems limited Opportunities The job will provide opportunities to learn new skills.  The new skills then have the potential to provide a springboard into other more interesting or better paid jobs The vacancy will give experience which is a required precursor for something else you want to do or achieve later i.e. future roles Threats Hand over from previous manager/ fed down from head of credit control. This  could be achieved by coaching from higher management Within first month probation period review.  Once daily tasks understood, prioritise task/ time management This will need to fit in with the team and their daily work load Within the first month. Set relevant and achievable objectives for the team in order to help them achieve departmental targets Work with head of credit control, maybe base the objectives on past objectives depending on how the targets for the department have been set Within the first month. To attend any in-house or external training courses relevant to my role Attend all courses that are relevant to the post. To be notified by the Learning and Development team To be on going from the start of your new role There are pros and cons of using a SWOT analysis in evaluating the leadership requirements of a job role. Mainly the advantages are that the process has very little to no cost attached to it and it’s not overly time consuming. A SWOT analysis helps you identify required strengths of a manager; it also allows you to highlight the weaknesses and gain better knowledge into what may need to be improved on for bettering efficiency and the business. Using opportunities wisely betters a business and knowing ones threats is important because it makes people aware of additional skills they may need to learn or perfect to overcome opposition. However the SWOT analysis model does come with its limitations. The SWOT analysis leads to an individual list of traits, it provides no mechanism to rank the significance of one factor over another and as a result any one factor’s true impact on the objective can’t be determined. It also only creates a one dimensional model in which each attribute is seen to have only one influence, however one factor could be considered both a strength and a weakness, it’s very ambiguous and down to personal choice of whoever is conducting the analysis. There are also pros and cons of using PDP’s within a role; the main advantages are that they are tailored for each individual, they help people develop clear plans for what they want to achieve and how they will accomplish these achievements within a set time period and setting goals increases awareness of a person’s strengths and weaknesses. Time spent going through PDP’s during 1-2-1’s brings the team closer together and enables  managers to direct teams to work how they want them to work possibly developing them for higher management positions within the business. On the other hand PDP’s can create pressure for the individual, particularly if you are not achieving the objectives set. This could lead to a sense of failure which is why it’s important that they are regularly discussed during 1-2-1’s and the individual is getting the correct support and coaching that they need.