When to Lead, When to Manage

The success of any organization depends upon both good management and good leadership. The question facing managers is, “When am I to lead and when am I to manage?” Miriam Kragness, Ph.D., author of the Dimensions of Leadership Profile^® published by Inscape Publishing, offers some guidelines to help managers respond to this dilemma.

According to Kragness, the management model focuses on the command and control functions. These include planning, executing, evaluating, communicating, and motivating or persuading others to support organizational plans and objectives.

Leadership is concerned about helping people identify the needs and opportunities to which they want to respond and determining how they may best make a contribution. Leadership also addresses creating a work environment where everyone can learn from each other and build on each other’s talents.

An organization needs an emphasis on management when it:

• is inefficient

• can’t seem to make decisions

• has trouble setting priorities

• does not follow through

• produces inconsistent results

• is foundering financially

• lacks a sensible business strategy

Leadership is to be the primary focus when an organization:

• is trying to stay abreast of a rapidly changing environment

• is experiencing high turnover or employee dissatisfaction

• is losing customers or failing to attract new ones

• is continually making mistakes

• faces one or more obstacles to survival or success that it does not know how to address

• lacks a sense of meaningful purpose

Kragness points out that there is a third role that also needs to be exercised--followership. “An organization needs to develop followership,” says Kragness, “when it needs to sustain present effort, increase it, or plow new ground; in other words, in any organization that wants to survive.”

The Dimensions of Leadership Profile is a registered trademark of Inscape Publishing.

© Mitchell R. Alegre

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