Get Your Students Hired
Thank you for the content in this course, and the feedback on responses posted. I, personally, always strive to improve my management and leadership skills, and believe all should strive to be the best manager and leader that they can possibly be. The ability to influence and motivate has a direct impact on the organization's success, as well as the group of individuals you are assigned to develop, coach and hopefully achieve desired outcomes.
I have a healthy balance of both manager and leader. While it is daunting in my position to find the time to connect individually with the different team members I oversee, I make it a practice to be available when they need me. This module helped me realize that to really be the leader my team needs, I need to motivate them by allowing them to embrace their goals and work together toward developing clear paths to achieve them.
My initial self assessment identified I am more of a Leader than manager. I do not agree totally with the assessment as I am always focused on "processes" and goals.
In administrative roles, it is important to be able to balance and flex both leadership and managerial skills. For example, seeking first to understand processes, then influence the shared vision and mission to then have the team achieve shared goals. Leaders will often develop the vision, inspire, and motivate support, but managers drive the implementation of that vision.
What I have found, is that I get caught up in management. Even though I am also the leader and visionary of the company who is always improving on processes and systems.
I manage and lead depending on the situation. At times our role requires us to manage and when I am able to motivate and influence, I am able to lead.
I learned the distinction between a great leader and a great manager and realized that aspects of both make someone a stronger individual. 😀
I actually am a leader and manager. I love to motivate and have staff go above and beyond for our students. I love establishing meeting guidlines and seeing the results of developing SMART goals for all team members.
I've learned from the assessment that I am more on the manager side than a leader. After I complete the module, I will use the tools learned here and become an effective leader.
I think to be a good manager it is important to your people and provide support which brings out the best in teams. On the other hand to lead is with vision and clear direction. Knowing the distinction between the two and realizing some skills need refinement like crucial conversations and conflict resolution.
I would like to enhance both characteristics. I believe if you can have traits for both a manager and a leader, I can be a much better employee
in higher education it is necessary to be both. There are policies that need to be followed to stay compliant, but the ever changing education and healthcare field the need for leadership is very apparent
I learned that being a top performer doesn't always translate to being a good manager or leader. I also appreciated the examples when a role calls for both management AND leadership -- while other roles are more focused on one or the other. The elements of influence and persuasion are often overlooked by some who call themselves leaders.
Reply to James Scheu's post: Nuances is correct. This lesson is helping me identify some of those nuances that are required of a leader and manager. Looking back on some major projects, I see it with a new lens.
While some people seem to be natural born leaders or managers, it is a comfort to know that we can all learn to improve. I assumed that leaders and managers were all one in the same, but a closer look shows that their focus and the results of their work are both different. Sometimes the best managers are not those with the strongest skill set, but rather those who can identify the best process and people to complete a shared goal. Leaders inspire others to make changes and the determination to see it unfold. Coming up with goals or ideas is pretty easy for me, and even bringing (convincing?) my colleagues that we should do this is invigorating. However, I really have to work at the project management aspect—I don’t always have the patience to work at the pace of education (much slower than industry). I have a lot to learn here…
Managers don't always make good leaders. Something I take to heart over the past 20 years of teaching, mentoring and managing in my various positions. You need to practice what you preach, earn the respect from your peers and subordinates to be a good leader and they will consider you a good manager.