1. The Relationship between Strategic Management and Leadership
1.1 Analyse the Concept of Managers as Effective Leaders
To understand the relationship between strategic management and strategic leadership, it’s useful to define the terms management and leadership. These terms are used interchangeably and often with very little attention paid to the roles implied by them.
Roles in management hierarchy are ‘Team Leader’ or ‘Supervisory’ positions and these positions are followed by ‘Management’, ‘Senior Management’, ‘Director’ or ‘Chief Executive’ positions.
All of the above roles could be described as leadership roles. It would be fair to say that the higher up the management hierarchy, the greater the necessity to exercise leadership skills, and the lesser the requirement to exercise management skills. Within this organisation for example the Chief Executive is more involved with strategic tasks, setting priorities, forward planning, writing and bidding for tenders etc. whereas my own role as Operational Manager is less involved in these kinds of tasks and more involved in the day to day running and planning of our work. The further away from the operating framework that you are, the less effective you are likely to be as a manager and the more effective you can be as a leader. This is reflected within the organisation in the position held by myself and that of the Chief Executive. I have a greater impact on the day to day running and delivery of the team as an Operational Manager and the Chief Executive plays a far greater role in the leadership of the organisation.
A management role involves organising, planning, coordinating, controlling, reviewing, coaching, delegating, liaising, motivating and leading. Fayol describes these functions as the mechanics and dynamics of management, crucial to which is communication. Through creativity and through applying expertise and decisive action managers through their team will
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