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Differences in Management and Leadership

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Differences in Management and Leadership
Running head: Management and Leadership If one were asked to explain the differences in management and leadership one could go to dictionary to look the two terms up. The person may find that management means to judiciously use a means to accomplish a result, and that leadership means to have the capacity to go ahead of or provide direction. This is a simplistic view and truly does not go into depth as to the differences between management and leadership. So what is the true meaning and differences between management and leadership? A management course may teach that leading is a function of management. What is not readily apparent is that managing is a function of leading. One may take this to mean that, while managers are expected to have excellent leadership skills, leaders are expected to have excellent management skills. One goes hand-in-hand with the other.
Warren Bennis is a well-known lecturer, writer, and theorist on management and leadership with a PhD in business administration. With an impressive career teaching the principals of business, management, and leadership spanning no less than 35 years many consider him a leading authority on the subject. He has been quoted as saying:
• Managers are people who do things right; leaders are people who do the right thing.
• The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
• Good leaders make people feel they are at the heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When this happens, people feel centered, and that gives their work meaning.
These are just a few of the principals that Bennis teaches on the concepts of management and leadership (Wikipedia, 2006). Professor Bennis provides other additional insight into the differences between managers and leaders by saying such things as:
• The focus of managers is on systems, while the focus of leaders is upon people.
• Managers maintain, while

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