Leadership and Management - Essay Example

Leadership and Management Name: Institution: Course: Instructor: Date: Introduction The concept of leadership and management has become a very challenging aspect of the modern society. Managers are responsible for managing organizations and business entities while leaders are set up to organize community activities. In getting the difference between managers and leaders, studies, books and authors have got the concept very wrong. This is because, the only difference that exist between leaders and managers is that managers are required to have a given skill set while leaders can take over a role even without having a given skill. This study is going to examine those elements of leadership and management that show their similarity. Self awareness Emotional intelligence helps one develop self awareness. This is the ability to have a clear picture of how you are feeling. People who have self awareness always know their state of mind and emotion at a given point in time. Therefore, self awareness helps a person know how his action and reactions can affect people around him and a given point in time. Leaders who are self aware have a vivid image of their own abilities, weaknesses and strength. When approaching a particular situation especially those that they know they are weak in, they are humble and always ask for the right course of action to pursue out of humility (Farh & Tesluk 2012, p. 14). When in a management position, managers with self awareness always use employees in making key organizational decisions and they also relate well with their employees. Therefore, emotional intelligence is extremely crucial for leaders and managers of communities and organizations respectively (Newman & Joseph 2010, p. 5). Self awareness also gives one the ability to come up with the proper ways of behaving when interacting with managers from other organizations or leaders from other communities. Even though it is something which is perceived to accompany people with high emotional intelligence, there are various ways in which one can improve his self awareness. It can be attained by keeping a journal and slowing down when one experiences anger (Torbert 2004, p. 7). Social awareness and effective communication Leaders and managers with a good emotional intelligence always have the ability to quickly catch the emotional state of others and properly understand what is going on around. This gives them an opportunity to sympathize and always understand other people’s positions. Employees are always faced with certain challenges in the workplace and in their social work. A good manager will put himself in the employee’s position and always come up with a way to help the employee (Kluemper 2008, p. 8). This is a crucial skill for managers who are responsible for managing, motivating and inspiring employees. Respect or loyalty comes hard to those managers who do not have the ability to understand and empathize with employees. Another benefit of emotional intelligence to managers and leaders is the ability to express them clearly (Frey et al. 2009, p. 13). As stated earlier, persons with emotional intelligence always understand and have the ability to control the emotional state of crowds and individuals around them. Therefore, they are capable of determining what to tell other people in order to motivate and inspire them towards a certain goal or direction. Therefore, a leader with emotional intelligence always gets his team listening to him most of the time due to proper communication skills (Farh & Tesluk 2012, p. 28). Talent management and motivation Talent management is a very essential initiative for most companies. First, talent management makes sure that an employee fully understands his responsibility and understands the organization and its goals better. Having a workforce developed from inside the organization is better than having to recruit new employees from time. Secondly, talent management plays a crucial part in making sure that employees stay loyal to the organization. Therefore, the entity stands a chance of avoiding liabilities involved with bringing in new employees. These liabilities include training costs, advertisement and interview costs (Mumford 1986, p. 15). In the human resource department, talent management is a sparkle that all executives should be ready to keep shining as if they need to attain overall and HR success. Another responsibility that cannot be left out in the human resource management department is employee motivation. It is crucial to make sure that all employees are at their best and have the desire to keep working. Once employees are dissatisfied and unmotivated, then the entity is likely to suffer from high employee turnover and poor performance. The HR department should work with other parts of the organization to come up with strategies that will keep employees motivated and at their best. This includes reward schemes and always listening to suggestions from employees about changes that they wish to see in the organization (Bennis 1989, p. 9). Self regulation Self regulation is the ability to control one’s actions especially when in an extreme emotional state. A person with the self regulation value always has a chance to keep his calm and avoids making decisions based on emotions. It is always crucial for leaders to make sure that they uphold their values. However, for a leader with low emotional intelligence hence low self regulation it is easy for them to break their values. This is because they cannot control their emotions. Leaders with self regulation always have the utmost opportunity to stay in control (Manfred 2003, p. 26). This makes them make informed and sober decisions at all times therefore staying in control of the communities and organizations they are in charge of. However, leaders without self regulation find it hard to stay in control. This is because they do not know how to judge their own action and how other people will react to them (Zaleznik 1977, p. 6). Self regulation helps a leader develop commitment and flexibility when it comes to personal accountability. Therefore, leadership should always strive to ensure that they improve their level of self regulation. A manager can improve in this aspect by practicing to be calm, knowing his values and always practicing accountability (Farh & Tesluk 2012, p. 9). Self and employee motivation This is a very crucial aspect when trying to attain greater goals and attaining high quality work standards. Leaders who are properly motivated are always working towards their objectives. However, this is not the case with non-motivated leaders. Motivated and self controlled leaders always act as an example to employees and people around them. They always know how to communicate with employees and always push employees towards attaining the set goals of the organization or community level. This always gives a leader an opportunity to succeed in all their undertakings (Newman & Joseph 2010, p. 12). In organizations, managers should always strive to ensure that employees are adequately motivated and that they understand what is expected of them. With emotional intelligence, leaders are able to achieve this. They focus on ensuring that employees are motivated by giving them an opportunity to examine themselves and come up with the right reason why they are at a given position in the organization and what is required of them (Gomez-Mejia et al. 2008, p. 12). Motivated leaders always know where they stand on certain ethical or societal issues. This is because such issues are likely to affect the organization or community which they lead at a particular point in time. Once a leader fails to know or understand where he stands then it is likely that the people or employees will not have a proper person to look towards (Kluemper 2008, p. 10). Conclusion In the society today, it is not leaders and managers alone who need to be at their best in order to attain success in life. Individuals should always strive for their positions to ensure that they lead a straight life. Emotional intelligence is an extremely crucial ingredient in doing so. In the social life, one interacts with other people and it is crucial for one to understand them and coexist peacefully with them. In order to do this, one should be able to control his emotions and always know what to say at a given time to avoid a negative confrontation with friends and family. Emotional intelligence also helps them to communicate positively in their social life (Newman & Joseph 2010, p. 19). Emotional intelligence also helps one to know how to behave in the workplace and in their political life. One should have a clear how to interact with other workers and always empathize with them and have an idea how to act in certain situations. Emotional intelligence also helps employees motivate themselves towards their goals. Therefore, emotional intelligence is a big boost for one in the organizational setting since it drives him towards success. This gives one an opportunity to advance in life. Politics has become an extremely delicate subject for most countries and individuals in the modern society. Therefore, one should know how to articulate his political view in the right manner to avoid confrontation with others. Since emotions are involved most of the times, emotional intelligence is crucial in such situations. . References Bennis, W. 1989. 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