Successful organizations have a combination of leaders and managers at each level. Leaders provide the vision and the overall mission that the organization strives to achieve, while managers administrate the day-to-day activities that help achieve the vision. Organizations cannot long survive without both leaders and managers: organizations without leaders lack the vision for long-term success; organizations lacking managers do not have the infrastructure necessary for the discipline to achieve the leader's vision. Leaders guide organizations in new directions while managers set forth the policies which solidify those changes. It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether leaders or managers are more important to an organization's development; instead, both are necessary components to a successful organization. This research examines various components of leadership and considers a specific example of leadership, that of President Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis.
At the heart of a leader's role is the job of motivation. If a leader is unable to provide motivation to the organization, it matters little how important the leader's vision is. Effective leaders combine motivation with their vision with the result that their essential message is inspirational. Members of the organization are not only convinced of the validity of the leader's vision, but are motivated to take the steps necessary to help achieve that vision (Verespej, 1995, p. 17). The ways in which successful leaders achieve this motivation vary from one individual to the next, and leaders who are successful in one organization may find that they are not successful in others, since the company culture has much influence over the leadership and motivational styles which are effective in any particular situation.
Finding the key to motivating workers can result in managers passing additional responsibility to workers. By giving employees the ...