Respond to Colleagues

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The leader I chose to highlight in this week’s discussion post is someone I currently work with. To me, the difference between leadership and management is that a leader helps you and guides you throughout your career and is more influential than a manager. I feel that a manager is more in the weeds with daily tasks and ensuring that work projects and things within your organization are staying on track. From all of our previous readings, leadership is how you handle situations and overseeing ideations from beginning to end.

This leader is very good at using the situational style of leadership. From Situational Leadership a key leadership skill by Brent Chapman, he says this “the most successful leaders are those who adapt their leadership style to the ability and willingness of the individual or group they are attempting to lead or influence” (Chapman, 2018). This leader uses this style very effectively because each person works differently and responds differently.

The Five Minds of Management talks about how two factors go into being an effective manager, and those are action and reflection. “Action without reflection is thoughtless; reflection without action is passive. Every manager has to find a way to combine these two mindsets—to function at the point where reflective thinking meets practical doing” (Gosling & Mintzberg, 2003).

I feel that this leader does an effective job of balancing action and reflection. They take the time to reflect before action is necessary and act when it requires immediate attention. This leader has a strong effect on our business environment, and everyone respects their leadership. They are the person everyone goes to when they have questions or want opinions on a business matter.

To me, leadership is more of a personal approach than managing, and that is one lesson I have learned from this leader. I feel they do this very well, which I want to take with me as I continue my career.  Another lesson that I have learned that I will use in my current role is that I will do my best to know when a situation requires action and when it requires reflection than action.

References

Chapman, B. (2018). Situational Leadership: A key leadership skill. Leadership Excellence, 35(9), 16–17.

Gosling, J., & Mintzberg, H. (2003). The five minds of a manager. Harvard Business Review, 81(11), 54–63.

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2nd Colleagues post - Regina Campbell 

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The names of the people in my discussion have been changed. Laurel was a colleague of mine while working in banking. She was a teller, then shortly after became a banker, in two short years became a branch manager. Harold was a supervisor who received a promotion. His most significant addition to the supervisor team was his enthusiasm for his team's professional growth.

Laurel's strength as a leader was her personality and ability to make her team feel welcomed. Her weakness as a leader was making some of the sales calls that a banker and manager had to make. She was better at sales in person, which would positively affect her branch. A strength she had as a manager was her ability to delegate, which led her branch to success. A weakness of hers as a manager was her ability to sometimes lead by example. For example, since she did not like making sales calls, she could only explain to her bankers and employees how to make calls but not show them. Gosling & Mintzberg (2003) stated, "Reflecting on experiences as a manager while not focusing on current duties are beneficial. "This is something I feel would have helped Laurel achieve great success.

Harold's strength as a leader was his ability to lead by example in the job, receiving calls. A weakness as a leader was there were too many times where he was confrontational on a call. Which, as representatives under him, we could not do.  A strength as a manager he had was his ability to bring his team together for a common goal. A weakness he showed as a manager was his ability to help his team efficiently. When a question was asked, he was passive-aggressive with helping his team. "A manager must understand processes while leaders must understand relationships" (Birk, 2010). I believe Harold's personality was only beneficial as a leader.

The differences in leadership skills and management skills for both of the people in my discussion are their leadership skills could correlate with personality. Their management skills focused on how to handle a team.

Laurel's effect on the community was people wanted to bank with us for our product and personality. This branch was in a low-income area where many customers did not have access to bank accounts or financial literacy.

Harold's effect on the business environment was his leadership style was personable and made the office fun. This is the leadership skill because he made others want to become supervisors in leaders, which was beneficial to the company.

I have learned lessons from both of the subjects in my discussion. The lesson I learned from Laurel is that it's possible to advance quickly in management, although the skills of leadership need to be able to adapt to management skills once that happens. This has impacted me because it's helped me understand that not all skill sets are useful in management. While I'm learning leadership skills, I will now focus on adapting with my skills and learning more to manage others or the company. For example, I plan to stay a flight attendant and move into a corporate position. While remembering Laurel, I will understand it is not always about my current skills, but I will have to learn more about managing, or else I can do more harm than good for the company.

Harold taught me not all leaders have management skills and that I cannot rely on my limited skills as a manager. Harold as a manager, was unapproachable and very passive-aggressive when helping his team. After some thought, I believe it was to mask that he did not know how to manage a team. His job performance got him the promotion, but management is different. I'm using this in my current goal by understanding if I want to move on with my career goals, I will have to take extra steps to learn how to manage. For example, as a flight attendant, you are the lead on some flights. For that flight, you have to know helps to manage and lead the other flight attendants throughout the flight, so it is imperative to have both skills

References

Birk, S. (2010). The 10 most common myths about leadership. Healthcare Executive, 25(6), 30–38.

Gosling, J., & Mintzberg, H. (2003). The five minds of a manager. Harvard Business Review, 81(11), 54–63.

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