Lead/Manage Essay

In regard to leadership and management, Michael Scott once said, “Would I rather be feared

or loved? Easy. Both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me” (Daniels et al.,

2005). I would not say that Michael Scott is the perfect example of a manager, but I do think

there is a lesson to be learned from his statement. Being a good leader and manager means

showing people that you care about them. It is not easy to find the right combination of

leadership and management. Leadership is described as “setting a direction or vision for a group

to follow” (Click et al., 2014). This is crucial for any organization or program. Without a leader,

people don’t know where to go. Management is defined as controlling or directing “…resources

according to established principles” (Click et al., 2014). Management helps to make sure that

people have the resources they need to achieve the goals the leader has set. Both are necessary

when creating an effective team.

As a leader, I am caring. I am good at building relationships with the people I work with and

showing them that they mean something to me. As the Relief Society President, I frequently

reached out to women in my ward who were struggling and needed a little extra support. I would

check in with them and see how I could help. Another leadership strength I possess is being

trustworthy. I do what I say I am going to do and people around me know that they can count on

me. I worked as an assistant teacher at a Montessori preschool, and I was frequently approached

by other teachers to help them with projects in their classes because they knew I would get it

done.

Although I can think of ways that I could improve in regard to all aspects of leadership, the

two that stand out the most to me are clarifying roles for the people on my team (Neugebauer &

Neugebauer, 2008) and being confident. In order to become better about clarifying roles for the
people on my team, I plan to write out the roles for each member of the team. I will have a

document that the team can refer to that will include all the responsibilities for the different roles.

With this document, both my team and I can refer to it when there are questions. This would also

help me to be more confident and surer of myself as a leader. Another thing that would help me

to be more confident as a leader would be to educate myself on how to be a better leader. I can

watch TED talks and read books on the topic.

Regarding management, I am a planner and like to be organized. Being a planner is crucial to

being a good manager. As a missionary, I trained three new missionaries. Teaching those

missionaries how to plan out the week, meals, or a lesson all helped our companionship be

efficient and effective. Planning helped our little “team” to make the most of every minute. I

know that organization helps people to work better and to be more focused on what they are

doing. While working at the Montessori preschool, I organized our afterschool closet which

made the whole afterschool program run so much smoother. There was much less chaos, and we

were able to better rotate the materials for the children.

I am a perfectionist which can be good at times, but more frequently it leads me to

procrastinate. To help improve this aspect of management I plan on studying the gospel topic of

perfection. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are the only perfect beings. If I understand the

doctrine behind perfection more, I think I could let go of my perfectionistic tendencies. I could

also improve on communicating with my team. My communication skills have come a long way,

but I still have a hard time communicating when there are difficult conversations that need to

happen. In order to improve this aspect, I plan to role play difficult conversations with either my

husband, a close friend, or an assistant director.

 I will use my leadership and management skills to hopefully run my own small preschool. I

would really enjoy having a small group of people to manage. I will work to build the

relationships with those I work with and would hope that would help the team to feel more like a

family. I would like to independently manage the preschool which would require a lot of

planning and organization. It will take trust on both my side and the side of my team to make it a

profitable, successful business.

 References

Click, P. M., Click, P. M., Karkos, K. A., & Robertson, C. (2014). Administration of programs

for young children. Cengage Learning. 

Daniels, G. (Writer), Stupnitsky, G. (Writer), Eisenberg, L. (Writer), & Kwapis, K. (Director).

(2005). The fight (Season 2, Episode 6) [Television series episode]. In G. Daniels & R.

Gervais (Executive producers), The Office. NBC Universal. 

Neugebauer, B., & Neugebauer, R. (2008). Step-by-Step Guide to Team Building. In The art of

leadership: Managing early childhood organizations. essay, Child Care Information

Exchange.