3Por Josue Zelaya - Business Administration Student

The role of a manager has changed many times throughout history as researchers have studied and debated the key attributes that characterize an effective manager. Many theories have been put in place to try and explain what is believed to be the best version of a manager, which is an already very subjective topic. The situation in which a manager finds him or herself will dictate their style which has brought up some of these theories. Some may argue that employees are lazy and apathetic by nature, therefore the manager should be a bit more authoritarian; others may believe that employees are outgoing workers that love to do their jobs well and should not require such a strict manager, but the one thing all theories may agree upon is that the workplace is dictated by social factors which can only be controlled by effective leaders. Therefore, outstanding managers must also seek to be outstanding leaders, but how can they do both?

The Key
According to Oxford Languages (2021), the definition of a manager is a person who is responsible for controlling or administering an organization or business. From this definition one would associate a manager as someone who is mostly task-oriented and focused on the company’s objectives which is fantastic, but this still ignores a big factor that was touched upon earlier by the existing theories of management which is the social factors of employees surrounding a manager. For this, managers would have to train to be great leaders as well as managers. Oxford Languages (2021) defines a leader as a person who leads or commands a group, organization, or business. Any manager can complete the tasks that are presented in front of them, but the best businesses will seek the managers that can inspire their colleagues; push them to be better and unlock their maximum potential to help the organization as a whole to go even further. The key to outstanding management is the ability to manage the many tasks that are presented in front of them, as well as the ability to manage the people that surround them to help them with said tasks as a leader would do.

What traits define a great leader and a manager?
As we already know that the best managers will have to carry both managerial and leadership traits, we will look at some of these traits and examine how they relate with each other in order to apply them in pursuit of becoming a great manager.

Conclusion
Managers don’t have to take into consideration their fellow employees and/or colleagues in order to get the job done, but extraordinary ones will want to. As it might be hard for some to see, one must become a good leader to go even further as a manager as the common managerial traits are not enough to manage the social factors that are present within an organization. The hardest parts of management might not be the tasks, but the people that you must: guide, work with, and foster. The greatest organizations in the world want more than simple task-oriented managers, but managers that are able to be people-oriented as well. These skills are inherent and natural to leaders, that may take some practice for others, but, without a doubt, turns leadership into the key to become a great manager.

 

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References:
  • Oxford Languages. (2021). Dictionary. https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/