Leadership
Leadership is described as the mechanism by which a person influences others to achieve a specific goal and leads an organization in a manner that ensures the firm's cohesiveness and coherence (Hill and Steven, 135). A successful leader is characterized by desire and willpower. Despite the fact that leadership can be learned, an individual's characteristics can have a significant impact on their leadership style. Managers, on the other hand, are an important category of people who are generally interested in corporate operations. Managers play an important part in ensuring that projects are completed by the efforts of others. The managers tend to act on behalf of the owners of the companies.
Differences Between Managers and Leaders
There tend to exist some significant differences between the managers and the leaders. The managers tend to exhibit concern for doing things right. On the other hand, the leaders tend to focus on doing things the right way. The leaders tend to focus on vision, mission goals, and objectives of the firm. The managers, however, tend to exhibit a concern with ensuring efficiency and productivity of their business. The important traits of leaders, therefore, include vision, mission, and possession of some of the essential characteristics that include psychological motives, capabilities, and consistency.
Bill Fleming
Bill Fleming is an excellent example of a leader. Fleming served as the president of Skanska USA. Fleming exhibited some characteristics that portray him as an effective leader. As a leader, he showed preference for the autocratic style of leadership whereby he created an environment that allowed for every member of the team to contribute. Regarding change, Fleming assisted in streamlining the public procurement, cost estimation, and design management. His real leadership qualities led to his assignment in various science and technology projects. Fleming exhibited social responsibility through spearheading the establishment of the Skanska’s Centres of Excellence for sports and entertainment to support individuals.
Bill Gates
Another outstanding leader is Bill Gates who is the founder of Microsoft. Bill Gates tends to adopt a mixture of autocratic and delegate leadership styles depending on the task. He ensures the building of trust through taking into consideration the opinions of his employees. Some of the traits that make Bill Gates an effective leader entail sociability, integrity, determination and intelligence (Wells, 12). He ensures motivation of his employees through the provision of huge remunerations and bonuses. Gates exercises ethics through the avoidance of coercion or manipulation of others for personal gain. He ensures social responsibility through Bill Gates Foundation.
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook is also an example of a good leader. He exercises autocratic leadership whereby he provides his staff the opportunity to contribute to some of the decisions (Lashinsky, 68). He ensures motivation of the staff through teaching on what is important and how to go about some of the challenges that they face. Mark provides exercising of ethics through building trusts and treating everyone with mutual respect irrespective of their positions.
Ralph Lauren
Additionally, Ralph Lauren is a perfect example of an effective leader. As the head of the company, he exhibited the preference for the delegate style of leadership. The approach ensured his effectiveness in motivating the employees through giving his employees significant responsibilities that made sure that they feel necessary (Ralph Lauren, Corporation, 1). Lauren provided cultivation of the talents of his employees through leading them in fulfillment of their ideal potentials. Lauren provided social service through his foundation aimed at assisting the members of the society.
Work Cited
Hill, Charles WL, and Steven Lattimore McShane. Principles of management. McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2008.
Lashinsky, Adam. “1 MARK ZUCKERBERG. (Cover Story).” Fortune, vol. 174, no. 7, 12/1/2016, pp. 66-72. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=119406167&site=ehost-live.
Ralph Lauren, Corporation. “Ralph Lauren Corporation Strengthens Leadership with Chief Marketing Officer and Men’s Brand President Appointments.” Business Wire (English), 2. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwh&AN=bizwire.c73744721&site=ehost-live.
Wells, Paul. “Bill & Stephen, Best Friends Forever.” Maclean’s, vol. 128, no. 10, 16 Mar. 2015, pp. 12-13. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=101455237&site=ehost-live.
