To lead or to manage?

New Year! As perceived by majority - new activities, new beginnings, new this and new that… but the question is… Is there really NEW in YOU?

Well, as they say “start the new year right to end it right.” But it seems, it did not happen on our first class for year 2012 in Organizational Analysis. We started the class late and we ended the class late also. Even though that’s what happened there is still a very nice things occurred to reciprocate the phenomena. It was lightened-up by the presentation of Dustin on the topic “Leaders vs Managers”.

Presented were the Bee and the Lion then we were asked, who is the leader? And who is the manager? My answer? Hehehehe, it was mixed-up. Leaders are the Lions and Managers are the Bees as conceived on Dustin’s presentation. We’ve been encountering these terms almost every time. But somehow we’ve just let it pass without even knowing which is which? And who is who? Dustin’s presentation on the topic somehow enlightened me on who is the leader and who is the manager. It came up into my mind that even how small or how big the creature is; it has its role to contribute.

This is what had transpired in Dustin's presentation:

Leaders	Managers
they are like artists – they tolerate chaos, keep answers in suspense and prevent premature closure	Seek order Control Rapid resolution to problems
Attitude Towards Goals
Take personal and active outlook Set company direction	Take impersonal, passive outlook Goals arise out of necessities
Conceptions of Work
Develop fresh approaches to problems, Innovators Increase options Seek risk when opportunities appear promising	Negotiate and Coerce, Neutral Limit choices
Relations to Others
Attracted to ideas, relate to others directly Focus on substance of events and decision Subordinates describe them with emotionally rich adjectives	prefer working with people with minimal emotional involvement Focus on process Communicates by sending ambiguous signals
Sense of Self
Comes from struggles to profoundly alter human and economic relationships Feel separate from the organization Influence	Comes from perpetuating and Strengthening existing institutions Feel part of the organization Rules and orderliness

Dustin ended the presentation with the question “What does the company need?” And from there discussions started. and the common answer was both. Questions and answers from the class where thrown. Even me, also asked the question on decision-making. To which some think irrelevant to the topic. Hehehe but that’s okay.

My Analysis

In my organization – Notre Dame of Midsayap College (NDMC), an educational institution, administered by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The president which is an oblate priest oversees all the operations and activities of the institution. For me, I categorized our president as Manager and as well as a leader. Why I say it such? Simply because like all other educational institution both public and private follows on certain rules and policies. And the governing official of the institution implements these rules and policies. Our president also implements whatever Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for the tertiary level and Department of Education (DepEd) for the secondary level up to the primary wanted to implement because this has something to do with government rules and policies and if the president will not adopt these, it will be a big problem for the institution. I also considered our president as a leader because he has this vision that our school could become a university someday that is why he was implementing the different recommendations of the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU).

For me, as an Academic Instructor, as I’m bounded with the implementing rules and regulations of the school I considered myself as a manager and a leader as well. A manager, for we do classroom management, does and follows what was stated in our syllabus and as stated above bounded by these rules and regulations and even follow the traditional “coerce” methodologies in teaching. A leader, for I also envisioned that what I’m imparting to my students could be of their great tool to succeed in their respective chosen endeavors and careers.