One of the central topics of our Balatonfüred workshop was the advantages and disadvantages of the leader and manager roles combining. As if we are the managers of our private life projects, we can assume that the manager and leader positions are both held by us personally. During the joint brainstorming, the question of advantages to this came up.
Managing ourselves and our lives isn’t only about efficiently using and spreading the resources we have access to, but handling those around us, and the processes surrounding us as well, and keeping all in check. Leadership science nowadays says that there’s no always applicable leadership style, which is just as correct for organising our private lives as it is in business. The management approach basically deals with the system, gives a pivotal role to precise organising. Manager-type executives are usually less flexible, and can’t adapt as easily. The leadership type, however, prefers emotional decision making, and focuses on the people around them just as much as on successful decision making.
Context-based leadership, which is the key to successful life planning and management basically means we need to use the style of managing best applied to the actual situation. In some life situations, it’s more beneficial to keep our distance, and solve the problem in a more systematically organised way, when in others, it’s better to work as a group, and choose a more flexible approach.
If we can find the balance between leader and manager roles, meaning the two competences are applicable simultaneously, we help ourselves in solving one of the greatest problem of our everyday lives, which is creation of a correct time management. Reason being: delegating decision making is one of the keys to our competitiveness even in our private lives.
” Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower