Phase 2 Discussion Board

When someone thinks about people with authority they usually think about leaders and managers within their organization. Both leaders and managers have authority, just different kinds. A manager is an administrator; they are in responsible for their employees, utilize their employees as a resource to accomplish the organization’s goals, and make decisions for their employees. A Leader does not make decisions for their employees; they simply create new guidelines by either leading by example of by encouraging a better way of completing everyday tasks. A manager manages people, leaders use their individual leadership style as a way to guide and encourage employees (McCrimmon, 2011). When an organization is analyzed and managers and leaders looked at it is easy to see what makes them different. A manager depends on control to get tasks completed, they basically demand it. A leader uses the trust that they created to motivate and support the employees they work with. A manager focuses on an organization’s short term goals while a leader will focus on the organizations long term goals. A manager will not worry about developing and promoting their employees, a leader will develop and support their employees. A leader will see that developing the employees around them will make the whole team stronger; a manager just wants to get the job completed. Another big difference is that a manager does things right and a leader will do the right thing (Bennis, 2003). A leader creates a vision and a strategy for the manager to manage on a daily basis. Regardless of what leaders and managers do, both are needed to run a successful business (Kotter International, 2011). Trust is an essential skill to have when leading people, without it there is no true way of knowing if a task will be completed. A leader will trust their employees to get the tasks