Leadership and leadership, along with communication and decision-making, are essential components of a management system. Leadership is the mental and physical activity of the leader, the purpose of which is the performance by subordinates of the actions prescribed by them and the solution of certain tasks. A leader is a position endowed with certain official powers to which a person is appointed. In the process of managerial activity, he uses the power given to him by the organization. Leaders use Power as a means to achieve the goals of a group or organization.
Leadership is the process by which one person influences another person or group. Leadership can also be viewed as a socio-psychological phenomenon. A leader can influence people without any official authority. At its core, leadership is a psychological phenomenon. Power is not enough to manage subordinates effectively. The leader must have leadership influence.
Differences between a leader and a manager
Different scholars offer different views on this issue. Well, let’s look at the main differences between leadership and leadership:
- To a greater extent, the leader is the regulator of relations between all team members, while the manager only manages the official side of employee relations.
- The leader is associated with the microenvironment, while the leader controls the system completely.
- Any team member can become a leader – the one who inclines to this. A leader is an elected position who has clear obligations to the company and subordinates.
- Leadership is a less stable structure; a leader’s choice depends on the team’s mood and may change. Nevertheless, the leader is in a tough position.
- There is no power in the hands of the leader to impose sanctions on employees. However, the head can use his powers in any way necessary for him.
- It is easier for a leader to make decisions, but at the same time, he can do it spontaneously in a small group. This is because the leader has a complex decision-making algorithm associated with many circumstances.
Leadership is a purely psychological characteristic of the behavior of certain group members; leadership is, to a greater extent, a social part of relations in the group, primarily in terms of the distribution of management and subordination roles. Unlike leadership, leadership acts as a legal process regulated by society.
Leadership and management, despite their differences, share commonalities
The leader is a member of a small group, which is nominated as a result of the interaction of group members to organize the group in solving a specific problem. He demonstrates a higher level of activity, participation, and influence in solving this problem than other group members. Thus, the leader is put forward in a specific situation, taking on certain functions. The remaining group members take the lead, i.e., they build a relationship with the leader that assumes that he will lead, and they will be followers. Therefore, leadership must be considered a group phenomenon: a leader is unthinkable alone, always given as an element of a group structure, and leadership is a system of relations in this structure. Therefore, the phenomenon of leadership refers to the dynamic processes of a small group. This process can be quite contradictory: the measure of the leader’s claims and the measure of readiness of other members of the group to accept his leading role may not coincide.