4/08 Reading Summary
Should we ever start to differentiate between management positions and leadership positions? Should organizations start positing positions with the title Leader instead of Manager? There is a huge difference between what a manager does and what a leader does. So why do we typically include their duties in one position? I know we would like for someone who has the power to supervise employees to be capable of taking on leadership traits and these traits are looked for in a managerial candidate, but not all managers make good leaders. Personally, it is hard to have someone in authority over you who you can respect as a leader. It makes it that much harder to take direction from them. A leader is someone who has the capability to motivate me, encourage my efforts, and show a strong sense of support for my involvement with the organization.
I have had several supervisors in the past that weren’t capable of producing managerial and leadership qualities. At my previous job, my last supervisor viewed his position as manager as a way to realize all of his ideas and not feel obligated to take into consideration the opinions of others. He saw himself in a position to control people, instead of taking opportunities to develop his employees. As a result he had little respect from his assistant managers and very little good reception to his implemented ideas.
Diversity is apparent in a majority of organizations today. The employment of the organization is either very diverse or the organization contracts out work to headquarters in foreign countries. At some point in your career you are going to have to face diverse situations. It is becoming more and more important for us to be accepting of these notions of diversity. Whether it is having to attend a diversity training or being sent to work in foreign divisions. I think in today’s world, in order to be successful or place yourself in a position to advance you have to show acceptance of diversity.
The other day I found myself angry with someone I haven’t even met before. I was talking with some coworkers who have been in my department longer than I have about flex time the other day and how I wished it was an option. They made me aware of how it use to be option several years ago, but certain employees were taking advantage of the luxury. Therefore, leading the department to stop allowing employees to utilize flex time. The lives of people today are much more complicated than what an 8-5 job allows. We are a becoming a society of people who find themselves doing a million things at once, in what seems to be a shorter amount of time. All the stresses I incur throughout the week would be solved with just an extra hour here in the daytime or an afternoon off once a week. Two things which would be plausible with a flex time schedule.