Great management skills will take you far. Great leadership skills will take you further.

Management skills, or the art of organising work, people and time, are essential for a company to achieve what needs to be done.  However without effective leadership, management loses its significance, can become counter productive and in some cases harmful to an organisation’s survival.

Here are 4 ways in which leadership supports the success of management.

Leadership is the ability to engage people to perform in the best of their ability towards a common goal for a business to thrive. In other words, effective leadership skills gives management skills its:

• Direction: leaders have a duty to respond to external factors and steer the business’ strategy and operations towards a specific goal for it to remain competitive. This becomes particularly significant in times of crisis and change like we are facing today. The leader’s ability to respond to new government guidelines, healthcare specialist recommendations and new customer purchasing habits will allow management skills to be oriented for the benefit of the company.

• Energy: effective leaders energise their team and those around them. Their personality, general attitude and ability to influence and communicate will have a direct impact on the motivation for others to get into action. With this energy, management skills are given the drive needed in teams to boost performance.

• Culture: a leader’s behaviour, purpose, goals, strategy, decisions and values will set the makings of the organisation’s culture as it cascades down the company. That culture will impact the way management operates by shaping its priorities, work practices and ethics.  With successful leadership, comes a positive work culture, enabling engagement to company goals and supporting the effectiveness of management skills. 

• Engagement to perform: effective leadership creates a community centered around a shared purpose. Combined with recognition of employee performance, skilled communication, trust and authenticity; leadership engages and aligns those around, giving the commitment needed for management skills to be implemented at its best.

Unlike management, the taking of a job doesn’t automatically mean that you have leadership.  It is a skill that is developed over a long period of time within individuals who choose to become leaders. It is a challenging role to take on but vital for a business to survive and thrive. It is therefore imperative for organisations to nurture and develop their leaders from very early in employee career paths, support those in existing leadership positions, and create a pipeline of leaders ready to insure the future of their company.

Find out more regarding our Leadership Fundamentals training programme