activity

Identify roles

How do leaders and managers stand out?

Step 1: Identify a person you believe is a good manager (person A) and one you believe is a good leader (person B)

These people don’t have to be celebrated or famous. In fact, you might have more insight about people you know or have crossed in your everyday life. Once you have selected the two people, write a list of reasons why you think person A is a good manager on one sheet of paper, then turn it over. On a second sheet of paper, write why you think person B is a good leader. As you think about each person, list out all the tasks/actions they do or take which you think represent a managerial or leadership role (keep these lists as they will be used for your final challenge in this learning pathway). When you’re done, put the two sheets side-by-side. What do you see?

Share your results and any questions with your classmates by writing a blog post. Remember to tag (WordPress) or label (Blogger) your blog post using the course tag: pman102

Note that you can also record your reflections in a written journal, if you prefer, but sharing your insights with your classmates means that you can trigger a discussion that may lead to a deeper understanding as we can all benefit from each other’s experience.

For example, think about the following questions:

  • Do you see a lot of similarities between the two roles?
  • Do you see a lot of differences between the two roles?
  • What makes these two people good at what they do?

Step 2: What makes a good manager and a good leader?

Now read the following quote: “If management is defined as getting things done through others, then leadership should be defined as the social and informal sources of influence that you use to inspire action taken by others. It means mobilizing others to want to struggle toward a common goal. Great leaders help build an organization’s human capital, then motivate individuals to take concerted action” (Carpenter, Bauer, & Erdogan, 2010: 12).

Use the WEnotes comment option below to explain how the quote applies to the people you identified in Step 1.

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(Comment.gif: The course tag appears in full in the text. Can’t work this out.. have redone the code several times.)