Links Between Strategic Planning And Leadership

Leadership is about getting people to understand and believe in your vision and to work with you to achieve your goals while managing is more about administering and making sure the day-to-day things are happening as they should.

Management and leadership functions are definitely not one and the same, although they are unavoidably linked together hand and hand. Evidently, it is clear to note that they overlap and compliment one another. Having one without the other no doubt will cause more problems than it solves. Yet the two indefinitely have their major differences. To start, a manager manages tasks and systems, while a leader leads and inspires people. “The manager’s job is to plan, organize and coordinate. The leader’s job is to inspire and motivate.” (Murray, 2010).

Although the terms “management” and “leadership” are often confused as in meaning the same there is a distinction between the words. The distinction between the words is that people manage things and lead people (Collins, 2017).

Management and leadership are often thought of as the same within business. The fact is that each of these has a different meaning:

One way to establish the difference between management and leadership is the fact that leadership is simply one of the many things that a manager should have. In fact, this should be one of the priorities of a manager. But aside from this, a manager also needs to be highly knowledgeable in administrative tasks, because this also comprises a huge part of their job. Specifically, a manager has four major functions to do: Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. All these functions have been proven to be essential in any kind of management process, and serve as the main foundation of all organizations (Bateman & Snell, 2009).

There is a difference between leadership and management, although they are similar in some ways. While, they both want to achieve common goals, influence people, and work with people, they are different. Managers aim to create consistency and

Leadership and management are alike and different in many ways. There are many different debated by scholars regarding the differences of leadership and management (Marquis & Huston, 2009). Part of the confusion stems from the word “leadership”. Marquis and Huston state that, “the word leadership was not known in the English language until the first half of the 19th century” (Marquis & Huston, 2009, p. 32). Theorists and leadership researchers disagree on what the word leadership is (Marquis & Huston, 2009). Therefore, it is wise to state what roles are integral in leadership (Marquis & Huston, 2009). Marquis lists leadership roles as decision maker, communicator, evaluator, facilitator, risk taker, mentor, energizer, coach, counselor, teacher, critical thinker, buffer, advocate, visionary, forecaster, influencer, creative problem solver, change agent, diplomat and role model (Marquis & Huston, 2009). “Leaders are in the front, moving forward, taking risks, and challenging the status quo” (Marquis & Huston, 2009, p. 33). According to Marquis & Huston (2009), the functions of management include planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling” (GCU, 2009). Grand Canyons lecture notes go on to state that, “within each of these functions,

Leadership and management are too different types of ways to have in a company to make it a successfully run. People maybe a leader or a manager and they will know before going into a business that will have stiff competition they have to prove oneself to achieve the level of position they are applying or advancing.

Leadership vs. Management, are they the same? No!. “A leader focus on setting goals and direction, challenging the norm, and seeking new ways of working towards the goals. On the other side, Managers specialize on conformance to the standards. They manage teams and individuals, organizing, directing and controlling to achieve goals” (EBA, 2016).

Leadership and management are similar; however, have different definitions. Some leaders have an innate ability to learn whereas others may have to learn how to lead. A manager may not be an effective leader. A leader must possess certain characteristics to be effective. Communication, fairness, and leadership knowledge are the top three characteristics of an effective leader.

Management and leadership are viewed as two different perspectives in the business environment. As described by Dr. Warren Bennis ‘Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing’, this means that managers do things by the set rules and follow company policy, while leaders follow their own intuition, which may in turn be of more benefit to the company.

Strategic leadership entails making decisions across different cultures, agencies, agendas, personalities, and desires. It requires the devising of plans that are feasible, desirable, and acceptable to one’s organization and partners whether joint, interagency, or multinational. Strategic leadership demands the ability to make sound, reasoned decisions specifically, consequential decisions with grave implications. Since the aim of strategy is to link ends, ways, and means, the aim of strategic leadership is to determine the ends, choose the best ways, and apply the most effective means. The strategy is the plan; strategic leadership is the thinking and decision making required to develop and effect the plan.

Link between strategic management and leadership: The Strategic management and the leadership are two terms which are closely interlinked and both are dependent to each other. They can be related to achieve the organizational goals and vision.

A strategic leadership is a combination of visionary and managerial leadership, with the synergistic effects of both. Barsoux & Toegel (2012) argued that leadership of all types or at levels have to face the intense pressure to push the vision of the company a step further and go faster.

It is important to understand both strategic thinking and strategic planning in drawing conclusions of the contributions of strategic thinking on organisational performance; this is due to the similarities between the two. They must not be mistaken for one another and the results of one should not be contributed to the results of the other.