Managing and Leading Nonprofit Organizations

3Choosing a Leadership Style

As we work through our plan to advance your efficacy as a leader and a manager, it is important to dedicate some of the discourse to consider the question of leaders versus managers. Throughout this book the term leader is used interchangeably with the term manager. The reason for this is born of my view about the role of leaders and the role of managers. If you take time to explore the literature surrounding both terms, you will quickly see that most authors take a position that is best illustrated by the old saying, “Managers do things right while leaders do the right thing.” Many authors argue that leadership and management are two distinct practices and as a result they should be explored separately.

My view is contrary to this, believing instead that management and leadership exist together. Each should be viewed as being couched with the other. For reasons that you will see in Chapter 4, as we explore the role of culture in leadership practice it is not enough to focus solely on leadership while forgoing any consideration of your managerial capabilities. Being an effective leader requires that you develop as an effective manager, and being effective as a manager requires that you develop leadership capability. Leadership capability and managerial capability are hand in glove and together they constitute effective leadership practice. Given this lens, it's important as we begin to explore your leadership style that we keep an eye on the role ...