Leadership and Management
WA 3
MIDN Birdsall
University of Texas at Austin
When we discuss the differences between leadership and management, most would seem fairly cut and dry, yet the line is still drawn in a gray scale. A pure manager can be replaced by a machine or a computer, but a pure leader wouldn’t accomplish much without managerial skills. They are indivisible of each other; therefore one cannot exist effectively without the other. In our future careers it will be absolutely necessary to able to be the best of both worlds in order to stay well organized and be effective in whatever we do. But, it’s also pivotal that we understand and notice the difference between the two. So, I shall be addressing what some obvious differences there are between the two, and how I intend on using this knowledge to better myself in the early years of my career.
I may not have a wide variety of experience in seeing the difference between managerial and leadership sides of things, due to the very small number of jobs I’ve held, but there are still key differences that can be picked up by anyone.
The one I can draw points from is my first real job that I held for two years at Shipwreck Island Water Park in Panama City Beach, Florida. They had a very blatant system that was easily decipherable between the leaders and the managers. In that job the hierarchy went as follows. Your first year you spend most of your days working the worst rides such as the kiddy pool, being told what to do by the leads, which is someone that runs an attraction with a number of other leads. In your second year you may or may not become a ‘lead’, which is an ironic title because it is a purely managerial position. If you stick around for a third year you will be a ‘lead’, and most likely the head of an attraction. Now all the lead and lifeguard positions switched around daily depending on who was working that day, to try to keep it fair and give equal opportunity to everyone. This is what made it terribly easy to
MIDN Birdsall
University of Texas at Austin
When we discuss the differences between leadership and management, most would seem fairly cut and dry, yet the line is still drawn in a gray scale. A pure manager can be replaced by a machine or a computer, but a pure leader wouldn’t accomplish much without managerial skills. They are indivisible of each other; therefore one cannot exist effectively without the other. In our future careers it will be absolutely necessary to able to be the best of both worlds in order to stay well organized and be effective in whatever we do. But, it’s also pivotal that we understand and notice the difference between the two. So, I shall be addressing what some obvious differences there are between the two, and how I intend on using this knowledge to better myself in the early years of my career.
I may not have a wide variety of experience in seeing the difference between managerial and leadership sides of things, due to the very small number of jobs I’ve held, but there are still key differences that can be picked up by anyone.
The one I can draw points from is my first real job that I held for two years at Shipwreck Island Water Park in Panama City Beach, Florida. They had a very blatant system that was easily decipherable between the leaders and the managers. In that job the hierarchy went as follows. Your first year you spend most of your days working the worst rides such as the kiddy pool, being told what to do by the leads, which is someone that runs an attraction with a number of other leads. In your second year you may or may not become a ‘lead’, which is an ironic title because it is a purely managerial position. If you stick around for a third year you will be a ‘lead’, and most likely the head of an attraction. Now all the lead and lifeguard positions switched around daily depending on who was working that day, to try to keep it fair and give equal opportunity to everyone. This is what made it terribly easy to