Name

Institution

Date

Introductive to Leadership and Trait Perspective

Discussion A: Similarities and Differences in Management

People mistake management to be similar to leadership, but in essence, the two are different concepts. The main dissimilarity between the two is that for leaders, they have individuals follow them while managers act as supervisors. Leadership is about convincing people to comprehend and trust in a vision that the leader has set for the company. Management, on the other hand, is about administering and ensuring that the daily operations of the organization are happening accordingly (Popovici, 2012). In simple terms, leadership is about motivating, while management is about organization.

Leaders are usually about motivation and praise for the success of followers while and work to generate drive in people. Managers, on the other hand, are fixated on faults and suggesting solutions. Leaders create an image of what where the organization should be and work to increase engagement to turn that vision into actuality. They consider people to be beyond just skills and activate them to be a part of something bigger. They are aware of how important it is to be able to create functioning teams that work together rather than working autonomously.

The similarities between leadership and management are that they all work to allocate the available assets in an efficient way. They have one goal to maximize earnings and establish a strong bottom line for the organization. Both managers and leaders are working towards a goal. Their roles involve influencing the environment and the work structure. Both managers and leaders work towards a vision. Both roles involve working with people and providing direction, although the way they do this is unique to each.

In conclusion, leadership and management are not the same; however, they are interdependent. The confusion might come from the similarities of both; however, leadership is the art of providing direction for people, while management is about strategic planning and defining purposes and ensuring they are followed. Leadership requires self-awareness and self-direction.

Discussion B: Choosing a New Director of Research

According to the traits presented in Tables 2.1 and 2.2, Sandra should select Kelsey Metts. Kelsey is the best candidate because she is able to combine two traits that are not usually found in the same person. These two traits are intelligence and sociability. This trait is helpful in this situation because intellect is possibly linked to leadership. Kelsey is very intelligent, as indicated by her MBA at Harvard and the fact that she graduated first of her class in such a competitive institution. With this kind of trait, a person like Kelsey is not expected to be sociable because intelligent people are usually pre-occupied with their thoughts or may have difficulties communicating with others because of the complexity of their ideas. And the intelligent effect becomes counterproductive (Antonakis, House, & Simonton, 2017). Since Kelsey is a very sociable person, the combination of these traits become very beneficial. The evidence of the success of all her four products might be a testimony of the importance of having these two qualities. The sentiments that Kelsey should one day be the president of her own company adds to her viability for this position. Sociability and human relations are very important for any leader.

The problem of high IQ and leadership is that it generates negative effects. It is important for leaders to be intelligent, but when the intelligence score goes too high, the benefits become negative as the high IQ starts to meddle. This may be explained by the inability of people with high IQ to interact with people and become sociable. A leader should be a person that is able to use words to help people comprehend and follow a certain vision. Without proper interaction and meaningful communication with subordinates, leaders can be perceived to lack self-confidence, another very important trait in leadership.

References

Antonakis, J., House, R. J., & Simonton, D. K. (2017). Can super smart leaders suffer from too much of a good thing? The curvilinear effect of intelligence on perceived leadership behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(7), 1003.

Popovici, V. (2012). Similarities and differences between management and leadership. Annals-Economy Series, 2, 126-135.