Key Idea: Every team needs someone to make sure the work gets done and someone to make people want to do it. This topic is the difference between managing and leading, and the styles a leader can choose from.
Managing
- Getting objectives met through people and resources: plan, organize, direct, coordinate, control.
- Authority comes with the job title.
- Doing things right: steady, measured, efficient.
Leading
- Setting a direction and getting people to follow it willingly.
- Influence can come from anyone, with or without a title.
- Doing the right things: change, trust, commitment.
Leadership styles
- Autocratic decides alone; paternalistic decides like a caring parent.
- Democratic asks the team; laissez-faire leaves the team to decide.
- Situational picks the style that fits the people and the task.
The words to know
| Word | Means | Do not confuse with |
|---|---|---|
| Management | getting objectives met through people and resources | leadership, which sets the direction and wins people over |
| Leadership | influencing people to work towards a goal willingly | a job title: a leader can have none |
| Autocratic leadership | the leader makes decisions alone and gives orders | paternalistic, which also decides alone but for the staff's welfare |
| Paternalistic leadership | the leader decides alone, like a parent, with the staff's welfare in mind | democratic: the staff are cared for, not consulted |
| Democratic leadership | the leader asks the team for its views before deciding | laissez-faire, where the team makes the decision |
| Laissez-faire leadership | the leader lets go of decisions and leaves the team to make them | no leadership at all: the leader still sets the goal |
| Situational leadership | choosing the style that fits the people, the task and the urgency | a fifth fixed style |
Name the style from what the leader does in the case, then give its effect on these staff and this task. A style is never good or bad on its own: say who it suits and when, using the case.
Exam-style question
At the Mill Lane bakehouse, Priti tells her six bakers exactly how to shape every loaf and does not ask for their ideas. Rosa, the most experienced baker, has stopped making suggestions. Explain one advantage and one disadvantage for Lena's Bakery Ltd of Priti's leadership style.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Important: Autocratic and paternalistic both decide alone; paternalistic does it for the staff's good. Democratic asks the team; laissez-faire hands the decision over. Find the one thing the leader does in the case, then name the style from it.
Tap each card to check yourself.
Kofi writes the rota and checks the till. Managing or leading? Managing. He is getting planned work done with the authority of his job.
Lena decides the staff need a free lunch and a pension, without asking them. Which style? Paternalistic. She decides alone, but for their welfare.
Aisha asks her four counter staff before changing the opening time. Which style? Democratic. She asks for their views, then decides.
Lena leaves Rosa to create a rye bread. Which style, and when does it work? Laissez-faire. It works with skilled, motivated staff like Rosa, not with new starters.
Name three of the functions of management. Any three: planning, organizing, directing (commanding), coordinating, controlling.
Why might one leader use two styles in a week? Situational leadership: an emergency needs quick orders; a new product needs the team's ideas.
Exam tips
- Management gets the work done; leadership gets people to want to do it. A good manager needs both.
- Name the style from what the leader does in the case before you judge it.
- Autocratic and paternalistic both decide alone; only paternalistic puts the staff's welfare first.
- No style is best: say which staff, task and urgency it suits.
- For a definition, give the one feature that separates the style from its look-alike.