Article Synthesis and Summary 3 - What Leaders Really Do

Summary

Kotter (2001) presented an interesting interpretation in the differences between management and leadership through his Harvard Business Review article. He opened the discussion highlighting two important and key ideas that established the basis for this difference. The first, “management is about coping with complexity” (Kotter, p. 88). The second, “leadership, by contrast, is about coping with change” (Kotter, p. 88). Kotter elaborated further, identifying three important tasks that both management and leadership must accomplish even though they are approached in different ways. Next, the tasks were broken down into management versus leadership comparisons and explanations.

Overall, Kotter emphasized the leadership aspects to show what leaders do that set them apart from managers.

The first task, deciding what needs to be done, associated planning and budgeting with management and setting a direction with leadership. The concept of establishing a vision and strategy is paramount for a leader to set a direction. Confusing this idea with planning, a process for managers is contrary to the function of leadership, which produces change (Kotter, 2001). The second task, network and relationship building to accomplish an agenda was linked to linked to the concepts of organizing and staffing to management and aligning people to leadership. The essence of this task was, “aligning is different. It is more of a communications challenge than a design problem” (Kotter, p. 91). Ensuring people do their job made up the third task. It related managers to controlling and problem solving and leaders to motivating and inspiring. This task was best characterized by differences in behavior. Leaders must possess high energy to achieve grand visions where managers do not have to be exciting or glamorous (Kotter). The article concluded with the notion that the complex world will require cultures to develop leadership and the embracing the concept that,...