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Effective Leadership

How to Effectively Lead
University of Phoenix

Abstract
To lead is a function of management; leadership requires more skills than just managing. Often managers execute their duties flawlessly and still fail to lead, and yet many leaders in the workplace do not hold the title of manager. The differentiation between manager and leader is defined and discussed in detail in the text below.

How to Effectively Lead
Management is defined as the process of working with resources, including people, to obtain a goal. There are four, largely autonomous, functions that define management. Leadership is more than just a function and requires several traits that may or may not be found in a given manager. Leadership requires the collaboration of resources and management functions coupled with strategic vision to effectively lead.
Leadership
Effectiveness Defined
Leadership is demanded in business today. Successful businesses recognize complementary skills in management and leadership are required and without effective leadership, it cannot reach its goals or vision. Simply defined, “leadership is the ability to guide, direct, and influence people” (Fiedeldey-Van Dijk, 2007, p2). Effective leadership may be comprised of several commonly accepted traits that include visionary, inspirational, self-sacrifice, integrity, decisive, and performance oriented (House, 2004, p36). These traits when demonstrated are typically understood and accepted across most cultural norms. A steel plant with multi-cultural diversity among its workers will see certain types of leadership styles as acceptable such as autonomous, as normal and expected, while others in the workforce may perceive as weak or arrogant.
Leaders create followers that willingly follow, whereas managers create followers out of obligation, rules, and or out of subordinate relationships (Hock, 2000). The point here is that these commonly accepted traits transcends across cultural diversity in the...