Thought 154: Leaders vs Managers (Continued)

People follow someone only when he has something that they admire. A leader has followers – his followers admire something that he has. The manager does not have followers. The followers have faith in their leader – and faith means to believe implicitly. The followers follow the leader, not because, the latter asked or forced them to follow, but because, the leader inspired them in some inexplicable way. It is more an emotional affair between them.

The most important reason why people follow leaders, however, is that they perceive the leader to be committed to their interests and welfare. They see him giving priority for their welfare; it is always uppermost in his mind. His own interests take a back seat – in comparison to the interests of his followers.

A leader is one who has vision. “I had a dream”, proclaimed Martin Luther King Jr, who lead the movement for the emancipation of the blacks from the white supremacy in the USA. The leader has a charisma, by virtue of which, he inspires “ordinary persons to perform extraordinary tasks”. To get them to do this, he innovates and improvises, as needed. He can take risks and therefore, generally, sets his sights on big victories as opposed to small gains. A leader aims at, not only efficiency but, more importantly, aims at effectiveness. He can sacrifice efficiency, if effectiveness has to be achieved at the cost of efficiency. According to the well-known management expert, Peter Drucker, efficiency is to do a thing right, while effectiveness is to do the right thing.

A leader controls, more through trust, than by rules. He operates on the fundamental law – “you have to put in the bank first, before you can cash a check”. He relies more on the human side of the organization and less on rules and regulations. He organizes all collective activities through teams, rather than through committees. He motivates the teams to deal with visions and imaginative solutions, unlike the committees, which operate on the basis of an agenda.

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