Leader and Being A Manger

Some interviewers may ask you whether you are a leader or a manager.
To reply to this question, you must first understand the difference between a leader and a manager. Management and leadership have very different meanings: a manager is a title and leader is a function. Management is a position and leadership is a skill.

Team Leadership versus Team Management
A leader is someone who leads a team, and becomes a leader because of his or her skills and talents which are higher than those of the remainder of the group, while a manager is someone who is purposely hired to manage the operation of a team.
A leader is recognized as a leader by his teammates because he possesses some influential personal traits that affect the group performance and activities.

What Makes a Leader?
Leadership skills can be categorized as follows:

• Sharing Information

• Understanding Needs and Characteristics of the group

• Knowing the Resources and skillful in their utilization/development

• Controlling and Counseling

• Setting the Example

• Representing

• Planning & Evaluating

• Sharing leadership and Learning.

What kind of a leader are you? Words that describe your leadership characteristics
some key personal traits that effectively describe leadership performance are: Initiator, Innovator and Originator, Decision Maker, Listener, Critical Thinker, Coacher, Inspiring, Motivating, Dominating, Goal Oriented and Vision/Planning Abilities.
Determine which of the above skills you possess and expound upon (illustrate) them in your answer. 

A True Leader Works with the Group
The corporate world is altering quickly, and the general consensus nowadays is that a leader works side-by-side with the group, instead of merely delegating.
This is seen as the optimum path in today’s corporate world.

Do you display people orientated leadership? Are you essentially ‘people oriented’? It is known that a leader with no people who are willing to follow him (or her) is not a leader. The leader must maintain an effective interpersonal relationship with people resulting in an ongoing and growing network.
He may present original thinking, a fresh ideal, a vision or a new path that attracts and motivates others to go after him without hesitations.
When you are questioned regarding your leadership style, try to integrate these points into your reply, along with some brief and concise examples portraying your leadership abilities in action. You may also wish to share leadership styles that you admire, and hope to emulate.

Select one of the five approaches to leadership and explain its key characteristics (trait, behavioral, contingency, full-range or servant leadership) and explain the beliefs and components that make up the theory?

1.     Public leadership

Public leadership refers to the actions or behaviors that leaders take to influence two or more people simultaneously – perhaps in a meeting or when addressing a large group. Public leadership is directed towards (1) setting and agreeing a motivating vision or future for the group or organization to ensure unity of purpose; (2) creating positive peer pressure towards shared, high performance standards and an atmosphere of trust and team spirit; and (3) driving successful collective action and results. Public leadership therefore serves the first three dimensions of leadership mentioned in the overview section.

2.     Private leadership

Private leadership concerns the leader’s one-to-one handling of individuals (which is the fourth of Scouller’s four dimensions of leadership). Although leadership involves creating a sense of group unity, groups are composed of individuals and they vary in their ambitions, confidence, experience and psychological make-up. Therefore they have to be treated as individuals – hence the importance of personal leadership. There are 14 private leadership behaviors (Scouller, 2011)

3.     Personal leadership

Personal leadership addresses the leader’s technical, psychological and moral development and its impact on his or her leadership presence, skill and behavior. It is, essentially, the key to making the theory of the two outer behavioral levels practical. Scouller went further in suggesting (in the preface of his book, The Three Levels of Leadership), that personal leadership is the answer to what Jim Collins called "the inner development of a person to level 5 leadership" in the book Good to Great – something that Collins admitted he was unable to explain.