Leading is a component of management along with planning, organizing and controlling. The recurring sequence of planning, organizing, leading and controlling is known as the “Deming wheel”. Leadership is therefore not synonymous with management, but is an essential facet of management.
Leadership includes tasks such as informing, creating trust, orienting, agreeing on goals, appreciating, recognizing, motivating, promoting strengths, challenging and criticizing. Performing these tasks takes time – a lot of time. As a foreman you should spend 40%-50% of your available time on leadership, as a department head 60% and as a managing director up to 70%. Most managers spend considerably less time on leadership. This then leads to deficits in motivation, orientation and commitment. Do not make this mistake. Lead your employees!
Yes, you will ask, how should I lead? Autocratic, charismatic, bureaucratic (according to Max Weber)? Authoritarian, democratic, participative, laissez-faire (according to Kurt Lewin)? Nothing is right in every situation. Stick to what Robert R. Blake and Jane Mouton say, and lead according to the situation at hand, depending on the persons to be led and the tasks to be accomplished.
In order to be able to lead others, however, you must first lead yourself properly.