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Hasnaa Hassan

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QA/ QC Section head at Oriental Weavers

Operations Management
The study of set of activities comprising supervision, planning and designing of business operations in the field of manufacturing of goods and services is termed as operations management. The purpose of operations management is to make certain that the operations of a business are efficient and effective and result in minimum of wastage. Operations management tries to cut down resources involved in operations while at the same time making operations more effective and productive. In fact operations management is more concerned on processes than people or products. Operations management in a nutshell is using physical resources in an optimum manner, converting input into output, so as to supply to the market the desired and finished product.

Production Management
Production management on the other hand focuses specifically on the production of goods and services and is concentrated upon churning output from input. It is a broad sum of activities that go into turning raw material into final, finished product. One may feel that production management is a subset of operations management, but production management in itself is a broad subject that comprises production planning and control, inventory management, and operations control. Production management includes all management activities spanning selection. Designing, operating, controlling and updating production system.

In brief:
Operations vs Production Management

* Both production management and operations management play an important role in an organization in increasing the efficiency and productivity.
* While operations management is focused upon administration, planning and execution of operations involved in production of goods and services and trying to minimize the resources at the same time increasing output, production management is more concerned with input/output and churning out products in the shape of desired finished product.

QA/ QC Section head at Oriental Weavers

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Operations Management The study of set of activities comprising supervision, planning and designing of business operations in the field of

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I recently figured something out that has sweeping implications for me. I realized that there is a big difference between "power" and "control". Power is defined as the ability to act or accomplish something. Control, on the other hand, is focused around dominating or exercising restraint or command over something.

As human beings, we are imbued with an incredible amount of power. We have power beyond our understanding and imagination. The vast majority of our power is never tapped consciously. Instead, we often end up as victims of our own subconscious as it feeds back to us unconscious beliefs, fears, and hangups that we have fed it all our lives. One of the keys to fulfillment is to look into these dark areas and bring the lies and limitations that usually remain hidden to light.

By contrast, we have control over very little in our lives. We cannot control the economic or family situation we are born into, or the wounds and limitations of our families. We cannot control the weather or what obstacles we may encounter each day. We can only control our attitudes and responses to what life throws at us. And since most of us don't understand how to do this in a conscious way, we don't even take control over the precious little that we have domain over in our lives.

Why is this distinction so important? I have often gotten the two confused, to my detriment. I have a pattern of getting really excited about something new in my life and attempting to seize control of it until I choke all the life and fun out of it, then disengaging completely, moving on to a new area of focus. This usually happens in areas in which I have a natural talent. I get excited about how much power I can bring to a challenge, and I want to control all aspects of the area - how, when, and how often I get to express my power. But since I don't have domain over that, I end up being frustrated that things aren't happening just as I'd have them happen, and I often give up.

Coaching was like this for me. I got so excited last year when I learned about coaching and how natural it was for me. I knew down deep that I had discovered a key vocational expression for myself. After I earned my certification, I thought clients would simply pour in to my practice without my having to lift a finger. This didn't happen, of course. When it didn't happen like I wanted it to, I stopped all my efforts to learn and express the craft of coaching and my coaching "muscles" fell into atrophy. It wasn't until November that I realized I had fallen into this pattern and got engaged again in the pursuit of coaching mastery.

I think this distinction is especially crucial for Christians. As followers of Christ, we hear so often that we are to surrender to God and to God's will for our lives. But too often, I think we stop exercising the most precious gift in the world - that of the human will. The power of the human will cannot be overestimated. Just witness the people who, through sheer human determination (will) accomplish amazing feats, even without a conscious understanding of who God is or a conscious relationship with Him (I say "conscious relationship" because we all have a relationship to God, but sometimes we don't acknowledge it). But God's will for us is to have a full, vibrant, dynamic life. In order to have this life he wants for us, we need to exercise our will. We need to figure out what it is we really want and go for it. We need to dream, take chances, strive, and fail. We need to come to the end of ourselves so we can recognize our abject need for His strength. To me, a big part of surrender is surrendering my right to be lazy, to give up easily in the face of obstacles. If we can do all things through Him who strengthens us, we have no excuse to be defeated by this world's challenges. We just have to rely on God to supply the strength that we cannot muster in crucial moments.

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I recently figured something out that has sweeping implications for me. I realized that there is a big difference between "power" and "control". Power is defined as the ability to act or accomplish something. Control, on the other hand, is focused around dominating or exercising restraint or command over something.

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"A group becomes a team when each member is sure enough of himself
and his contribution to praise the skills of the others."
- Norman Shidle
Most people participate in some form of a team or group on a regular basis. This happens through recreation in the realm of sports and clubs. This happens on the job as people come together to get things done within organizations.

Although you likely have been part of both groups and teams in the past, do you understand the difference? What are the key distinctions between a group and a team?
Defining Teams
Larson and LaFasto describe three basic characteristics of teams.

1. Two or more people

2. Specific performance objective or recognizable goal to be attained

3. Coordination of activity among the members of the team is required for attainment of the team goal or objective

Independent or Coordinated Effort
Larson and LaFasto's third point is the key to answering our question.

Groups organize around individuals bringing together independent work in light of individual goals.

Teams organize around individuals bringing together coordinated work in light of collective goals.

Contrasting Groups and Teams Valuing Both
I highly value teaming done well. However, there is a time and place for both groups and teams.

Groups are generally more helpful for quickly and efficiently getting things done in the context of a temporary working relationship. When individual and independent work can be brought together to advance the individual goals of multiple parties, then a group is an efficient way to work together. Many of the group projects and assignments I've completed over the years of my schooling fit into this group model.

Teams are generally more helpful for taking on bigger projects over a longer period of time. When the outcome requires coordinated work being brought together to advance collective goals that will be collectively evaluated, then a team is the most effective way to work together. Although teaming done well tends to take more time than working as a group, this extra time investment pays off in the quality of the team's performance.
Speed or Quality

Groups are best when the stakes are lower and speed is the key.

Teams are best when the stakes are high and quality is more important than speed.

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
- African proverb

This African proverb sums it up well. Though most of us want to go fast AND far, usually we have to prioritize one over the other. Groups help us go fast. Teams help us go far.

Enjoy the journey of working with others. I'd love to hear your experience of working with groups and teams!

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Groups vs. Teams: What's the Difference?

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"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." - African proverb This African proverb sums it up well. Though most of us want to go fast AND far, usually we have to prioritize one over the other. Groups help us go fast.

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"Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly" - Steven Covey

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Accountability in the workplace is something every manager wants to have. Accountability has a clear link to higher work performance, but experts indicate that it also results in improved competency and commitment to work, increased employee morale, and work satisfaction (Source: ). It's also known to improve creativity and innovation because the employee is more invested in the future of the organization. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management

However, a ccording to a study (Source: AMA Enterprise, 2013), leaders recognize a significant lack of accountability on the part of employees. In fact, 21 percent of respondents stated that unaccountable employees make up 30-50 percent of their workforce.

What exactly is accountability in the workplace, and why is it essential to high performance? What can leaders do to make accountability part of their organization's culture?

Accountability in the Workplace

High performance teams and organizations empower employees to take ownership, they foster a accountability, and they have a high levels of trust between all levels of the organization. Furthermore, there's a strong link between these three values and characteristics of high performance.
Ownership is about taking initiative and doing the right thing for the business. It's about taking responsibility for results and not assuming it's not someone else's responsibility. At minimum, taking ownership means that if you recognize something is material to achieving results, that you take the initiative to bring it to the attention of the right people. If ownership is about taking initiative, accountability is about follow through and getting done what you said you'd get done. It's recognizing that other team members are dependant on the results of your work and not wanting to let them down. It's about good, open, pro-active communication to keep team members informed on the status of your commitments because you respect that the results of your work has a direct impact on their ability to make their own commitments. Ultimately, when team members consistently demonstrate ownership and accountability, trust is formed.

Why accountability is essential

Without accountability, execution suffers. This happens in two ways.

The first is that when we don't hold ourselves accountable to getting work done well and on time, there's a tendency to become even more lenient and forgiving for slippages. A day becomes a week, a week a month. If it happens once, it's that little bit more acceptable for it to happen again.

The second is that when we don't hold ourselves accountable, the impact is exponential. Your delay becomes your team's delay. The work they had planned gets impacted and that work potentially has further downstream effects. The post, The Importance of Accountability on Teams , explains the lesson of punctuality on the Canadian ski team: when 10 people are waiting for you, if you are 2 minutes late - it's not just 2 minutes lost - the team has lost 22 minutes

Similarly, lack of accountability can snowball in a team, department and organization. Tolerating missed deadlines, lack of punctuality and un-finished work has the tendency to make this behaviour "no big deal". People learn that the real deadline is a week from the published one; that consistently being 10 min late for a meeting is the norm; that sub-par work is acceptable in the interest of "getting it done" (which should not be confused with pushing yourself to ship and not over-work a project). The cumulative impact across an organization can be substantial. One clear way to understand the impact of poor accountability is to imagine accountability in the context of the military. This HBR post, " What Ever Happened to Accountability ", Thomas Ricks covers the impact that a move away from accountability had in the United States Army during the Vietnam war. Ultimately, lack of accountability at the top level trickled down to many levels and had disastrous consequences.

How to Make Accountability Part of Your Culture

Here are some of the things leaders can do to help make accountability a key value.

Make accountability a lived value

Make accountability a part of your team's normal way of operating. Talk about it, share ideas, come to a common consensus about what accountability means in the workplace, and then use that as a foundation everyone works from as they make accountability an organizational goal.

Most importantly, make sure that accountability is more than a stated characteristic of how your team operates. Accountability needs to have consequences which are both positive and negative and those consequences need to be consistently applied. Research consistently contends that business leaders lose the most kudos when poor performance isn't dealt with and poor performers are able to continue without repercussion.

Goals are at the heart of accountability

An important step here is to break things down into meaningful goals and measurable metrics for everyone in the organization. Without proper goals, it's also going to be nearly impossible to effectively enforce accountability.

Goals provide clear expectations for everyone on what's expected. The less room for ambiguity the better - so goals need to be specific and measurable. In a team environment, this is especially important because of the dependency on each others' work and the exponential impact of not meeting expectations.

Another important outcome of having goals is defining what is NOT going to be a priority. One of the biggest reasons we fail to live up to our commitments is because we put too much on our plate and become de-focused on key priorities. So goals need to be realistic. We can't create accountability if what we're asking people to be accountable for isn't realistic or achievable.

Show the numbers

There are 3 ways that showing key metrics creates workplace accountability .

First, showing the number declares ownership. Every goal should be measurable and sharing this is a great way to demonstrate commitment to the result and communicate a clear expectation to other team members.

Second, showing the numbers creates some healthy workplace competition. Achieving goals and receiving recognition is a positive consequence of accountability. Missing a goal that's openly shared with the team has the effect of making us double down the next period to do better.

Third, showing goals helps keep people focused on priorities. It's easy to get distracted by new projects, but showing goals helps you hold yourself accountable and helps others hold you accountable as well.

Make accountability everyone's responsibility

Ownership is about taking responsibility and taking initiative whether or not the responsibility is clearly yours. There's a tendency in group settings for whereby a person is less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction when others are present. In the context of accountability, this may mean you don't see yourself as responsible for holding others accountable for timeliness, quality and strong communication. Perhaps it isn't your responsibility - there's someone more senior in the meeting or team, but this is where taking ownership becomes important. Resist the temptation to ignore when someone on your team needs to be held accountable. Owning this aspect of your culture is key so that others can adopt the same attitude. diffusion of responsibility

In terms of having the dialogue, there are likely going to be uncomfortable moments. These two posts from HBR have good tips on how to handle difficult conversations and conflict strategies for nice people .

Build trust through support and encouragement

Trust is an important factor that contributes to accountability. In low-trust environments, people are quick to focus on the blame, not the solution. In high trust environments, people focus on the solution, not the blame.

A key reason people avoid accountability is as a self-defence mechanism, because they're worried about what might happen if things go wrong. A person with low self-confidence - and perhaps bad past experiences - will fear accountability due to fear of messing things up and the imagined consequences, while a person naturally more confident knows they can get up and try again if things go wrong. So give praise where praise is due, to build up confidence in your staff, so people aren't afraid to take things on.

One thing you can do to help individuals that resist accountability is to help them understand the difference between accountability and making a judgement about how well they're doing their job. Failure to meet an objective is OK if the individual let the team know with as much notice as possible, why it happened, how they intend to correct it and to ask for help if it's needed. Approaching failure in this way is demonstrating accountability. There's an opportunity to learn from it and seek coaching or support to ensure future success. In this case, the individual is doing their job well. It's OK to fail from time to time. You just need to be upfront and proactive in your communication of it.

Creating accountable employees delivers numerous business benefits: better execution, lower employee turnover and more creativity and innovation. Overall, shifting to constructive accountability may require a culture change within your team or organization, but leaders, managers and employees will find the results well worth the effort.

About SoapBox

SoapBox Innovations creates software that helps managers engage with employees in a way that increaseses commitment and engagement. We make software that allows an organization to scale how they collect employees ideas and feedback. Recently, we also launched a beta of a one-on-one application called GoodTalk. GoodTalk makes it easier to build agendas and track action items. This increases accountability and helps to make one-on-one meetings more productive.

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How to Create a Culture of Accountability in the Workplace

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Accountability in the workplace is something every manager wants to have. Accountability has a clear link to higher work performance, but experts indicate that it also results in improved competency and commitment to work, increased employee morale, and work satisfaction (Source: ).

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“Culture is how organizations ‘do things’.” — Robbie Katanga

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If you want to provoke a vigorous debate, start a conversation on organizational culture. While there is universal agreement that (1) it exists, and (2) that it plays a crucial role in shaping behavior in organizations, there is little consensus on what organizational culture actually is, never mind how it influences behavior and whether it is something leaders can change.

Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning's online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Leading People. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.

What you need to know about being in charge.

Learn More & See All Courses

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What Is Organizational Culture? And Why Should We Care?

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What leaders need to know to change orgs for the better.

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Some great tools

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Basic Overview of Various Strategic Planning Models

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Get a basic overview of various strategic planning models in this topic from the Free Management Library.

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To learn more about Decision-Making Techniques see the article at https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_00.htm. We make hundreds of simple decisions every week, but complicated ones can sometimes stop us in our tracks. When you have to make a tough decision, what techniques do you use that help you to consider all of the important factors?

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Communicate your decision, and take action.

Let's look at each of these steps in detail. Each step features a list of related Mind Tools resources to help you further.

Step 1: Investigate the Situation in Detail

Decisions often fail because key factors are missed or ignored from the outset. So, before you can begin to make a decision, you need to fully understand your situation.

Start by considering the decision in the context of the problem it is intended to address. You need to determine whether the stated problem is the real issue, or just a symptom of something deeper.

Look beyond the obvious. It may be that your objective can be approached in isolation, but it's more likely that there are a number of interrelated factors to consider. Changes made in one department, for example, could have knock-on effects elsewhere, making the change counterproductive.

Step 2: Create a Constructive Environment for Your Decision

Can you give your decision the attention it needs? Spend some time preparing yourself before diving in to the facts and figures.

Remember that most decisions will affect other people too, so it helps to create a constructive environment in which to explore the situation together and gain support.

This is especially true when you have to rely on other people to implement a decision that you're responsible for. You'll need to identify who to include in the process and who will be part of any final decision-making group, which will ideally comprise just five to seven people.

Enable people to contribute to the discussions without any fear of the other participants rejecting them and their ideas. Make sure that everyone recognizes that the objective is to make the best decision possible in the circumstances, without blame.

Step 3: Generate Good Alternatives to Decide Between

The wider the options you explore, the better your final decision is likely to be. Generating a number of different options may seem to make your decision more complicated at first, but the act of coming up with alternatives forces you to dig deeper and to look at the problem from different angles.

This is when it can be helpful to employ a variety of creative thinking techniques. These can help you to step outside your normal patterns of thinking and come up with some truly innovative solutions.

Brainstorming is probably the most popular method of generating ideas, but for more tips on how to examine your situation from new perspectives, and how to organize ideas into manageable themes and groups, see the Mind Tools resources in the box, below.

Step 4: Explore Your Options

When you're satisfied that you have a good selection of realistic alternatives, it's time to evaluate the feasibility, risks and implications of each one.

Almost every decision involves some degree of risk. You'll need a structured approach for assessing threats and evaluating the probability of adverse events occurring - and what they might cost to manage. You'll also want to examine the ethical impact of each option, and how that might sit with your personal and organizational values.

The resources highlighted below offer tried-and-true models to help you.

Step 5: Select the Best Solution

Once you've evaluated the alternatives, the next step is to make your decision!

If you have various criteria to consider, use Decision Matrix Analysis to compare them reliably and rigorously. Or, if you want to determine which ones should carry most weight in your decision, conduct a Paired Comparison Analysis.

If your decision is being made within a group, techniques such as multi-voting and the Modified Borda Count can help your team reach an agreement.

When anonymity is important, decision-makers dislike one another, or there is a tendency for certain individuals to dominate the process, use the Delphi Technique to reach a fair and impartial decision. This uses cycles of anonymous, written discussion and argument, managed by a facilitator. Participants do not meet, and sometimes they don't even know who else is involved.

If you're working with an established team, Hartnett's Consensus-Oriented Decision-Making Model is useful for encouraging everyone to participate in making the decision. Or, if you're working with several different teams, or a particularly large group, assign responsibility for each stage of the decision-making process with Bain's RAPID Framework, so that everyone understands their responsibilities and any potential in-fighting can be avoided.

Step 6: Evaluate Your Plan

After all the effort and hard work you've invested in evaluating and selecting alternatives, it can be tempting to forge ahead at this stage. But now, more than ever, is the time to "sense check" your decision. After all, hindsight is great for identifying why things have gone wrong, but it's far better to prevent mistakes from happening in the first place!

Before you start to implement your decision, take a long, dispassionate look at it to be sure that you have been thorough, and that common errors haven't crept into the process.

Your final decision is only as good as the facts and research you used to make it. Make sure that your information is trustworthy, and that you've done your best not to "cherry pick" data. This will help you avoid confirmation bias, a common psychological bias in decision making.

Discuss your preliminary conclusions with important stakeholders to enable them to spot flaws, make recommendations, and support your conclusions. Listen to your own intuition, too, and quietly and methodically test assumptions and decisions against your own experience. BRAIN BRAN BRAND is a useful tool for this. If you have any doubts, examine them thoroughly to work out what's troubling you.

Use Blindspot Analysis to review whether you've fallen prey to problems like over-confidence, escalating commitment, or groupthink. And consider checking the logical structure of your process with the Ladder of Inference, to make sure that a well-founded and consistent decision emerges at the end.

Step 7: Communicate Your Decision, and Take Action

Once you've made your decision, you need to communicate it to everyone affected by it in an engaging, informative and inspiring way.

Get them involved in implementing the solution by discussing how and why you arrived at your decision. The more information you provide about risks and projected benefits, the more likely people will be to support it.

If people point out a flaw in your process as a result, have the humility to welcome their input and review your plans appropriately - it's much better to do this now, cheaply, than having to do it expensively (and embarrassingly) if your plans have failed.

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How to Make Decisions - A Model for Making the Best Possible Choices

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Communicate your decision, and take action. Let's look at each of these steps in detail. Each step features a list of related Mind Tools resources to help you further. Decisions often fail because key factors are missed or ignored from the outset. So, before you can begin to make a decision, you need to fully understand your situation.

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Article detailing risks in managing a multinational corporation.

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Managing Risks Associated With a Multinational Corporation

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Like any other business, yours faces many risks when operating as a multinational corporation (MNC). Though some risks are endemic to all firms, organizations operating across national boundaries face additional and unique challenges. Globalization and market liberalization present increased opportunities for growth ...

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Top 10 Exclusive McDonald's International Menu Items

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Order up for these special McDonald's creations! Join http://www.WatchMojo.com as we count down our picks for the Top 10 Exclusive McDonald's International Menu Items. Subscribe►►http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=watchmojo Facebook►►http://www.Facebook.com/WatchMojo. Twitter►►http://www.Twitter.com/WatchMojo Instagram►►http://instagram.com/watchmojo Suggestion Tool►►http://www.WatchMojo.com/suggest Channel Page►►http://www.youtube.com/watchmojo For this list, we're looking at internationally based McDonald's menu items that are popular for their unique nature, inventive recipes and much loved taste.

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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

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Vision: Justice and Equality in the Workplace
Mission: Stop and Remedy Unlawful Employment Discrimination

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The EEOC provides leadership and guidance to federal agencies on all aspects of the federal government's equal employment opportunity program.

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The Sarbanes-Oxley Act explained. Information, guidence and resources covering the legislation

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Here's a great article about the elements of a good corporate governance policy.

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Governance Pro - Eight Elements of Good Governance

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Good governance has 8 major characteristics. It is participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive, and follows the rule of law. Good governance is responsive to the present and future needs of the organization, exercises prudence in policy-setting and decision-making, and that the best interests of all stakeholders are taken into account.

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The Coca-Cola Company is committed to good corporate governance, which promotes the long-term interests of shareowners, strengthens Board and management accountability and helps build public trust in the Company.

The Board is elected by the shareowners to oversee their interest in the long-term health and the overall success of the business and its financial strength. The Board serves as the ultimate decision making body of the Company, except for those matters reserved to or shared with the shareowners. The Board selects and oversees the members of senior management, who are charged by the Board with conducting the business of the Company.

The Board of Directors has established Corporate Governance Guidelines which provide a framework for the effective governance of the Company. The guidelines address matters such as the Board's mission, Director responsibilities, Director qualifications, determination of Director independence, Board committee structure, Chief Executive Officer performance evaluation and management succession. The Board regularly reviews developments in corporate governance and updates the Corporate Governance Guidelines and other governance materials as it deems necessary and appropriate.

The Company's corporate governance materials, including the Corporate Governance Guidelines, the Company's Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws, the charters for each Board committee, the Company's Codes of Business Conduct, information about how to report concerns about the Company and the Company's public policy engagement and political contributions policy, can be accessed by clicking on the links above.

Learn more about Governance & Ethics "

Visit the Leadership section to learn more about our Board of Directors "

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The Coca-Cola Company is committed to good corporate governance, which promotes the long-term interests of shareowners, strengthens Board and management accountability and helps build public trust in the Company. The Board is elected by the shareowners to oversee their interest in the long-term health and the overall success of the business and its financial strength.

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Anyone within an organization has the potential to become a leader, but managers must be leaders. In schools and in our organizations we have been taught and conditioned to believe that managers and leaders are two separate people which is quite a harmful assumption. As a result we have managers who cannot lead and leaders who cannot manage. A leader who cannot manage has a vision of where they want to go but no idea of how to get there. A manager who cannot lead is not able to build trust and create engagement within an organization to get to where they need to go. Neither of these scenarios are practical or effective.

Management and managers are human inventions that were designed with a single purpose in mind, to enforce controls and protocols. The role of a manager was to make sure that employees showed up on time, did their jobs, didn't cause any problems, and showed up the next day to repeat the process. There was no emphasis on creativity, innovation, engagement, empowerment, or the like; nor was there a need for any of these things. However today we live and work in a very different world where all of these things are essential. This means that managers must be leaders. I believe we have reached an important tipping point which is forcing us to rethink managers and management altogether

I have been exploring this in a series of posts which you can find here (with much more on the way):

The stereotypical manager focuses on control, delegation, productivity, the bottom line, process, and efficiency. The leader focuses on vision, engagement, big ideas, empowerment, innovation, and transformation. One without the other is meaningless. Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs are of course considered to be great leaders in the world of business, but do you think that they didn't know how to build a team, look at the bottom line, execute strategies, and improve productivity? Of course they did. We don't need to look to the likes of Bezos or Jobs, any manager regardless of how junior or senior needs to be able to come up with big ideas, inspire employees, take on a certain degree of risk, or engage team members. We spend a lot of time taking people in positions of power and trying to train them to be leaders when we should be finding the leaders inside of our organizations and training them to be managers. The only thing worse than working for a manager that can't lead is missing out on the opportunity to turn our existing leaders into managers. We need to stop assuming that "managers" is a dirty word, if managers must be leaders then they should be looked at with a positive lens.

Greg Schott, the CEO of Mulesoft is a manager that personally interviews every candidate that applies to work there.

Todd Etter, the chief collaboration officer of The Motley Fool is a manager who uses games to inspire and engage his employees.

Lynanne Kunkel, the VP of Global Talent Development at is a manager that recently helped introduce a program across the company that instills the values of leadership and innovation across all employees.

Bob Chapman, the CEO of Barry-Wehmiller Companies, is a manager who measures "heart count" at his company to look at how engaged and happy the employees are.

Scott Abel, the CEO of Spiceworks, is a manager who has something called "slices with Scott" where he orders pizzas for the whole company who then get to spend hours asking Scott any questions they want whether it be "what's our company strategy going forward" to "how come you don't have kids?"

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Anyone within an organization has the potential to become a leader, but managers must be leaders. In schools and in our organizations we have been taught and conditioned to believe that managers and leaders are two separate people which is quite a harmful assumption. As a result we have managers [...]

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Management is positional. This means that management is assumed by the job title or position in the company. However, this should not always be confused with leadership. Leaders are not always appointed. They can emerge from anywhere. Good managers are not always leaders and good leaders are not always good managers. I think that managers that are good leaders, however, is preferable and beneficial.

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Understanding the Differences: Leadership vs. Management

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The main difference between leaders and managers is that leaders have people follow them while managers have people who work for them.

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The world is filled with managers and leaders. Both are quite necessary for a successful business, but rarely does someone completely master the traits of both. Often visionary entrepreneurs are moved aside for someone who can keep things steady and smooth. Of course when companies grow complacent, it's the leader who charts a new direction and brings the entire ship around.

Which role suits you best? The 10-question quiz below will help you find your path to contentment and success. No need to answer dishonestly since a higher score does not make you a winner. There's no single right answer to each one. Managers and leaders are equally necessary to a well-run company, so there is no single "best" result except the one that's right for you.

At the bottom you will find some score-based descriptions and suggested reading to help you advance your path whether you wish to manage or lead.

Employees who walk in your office know they may find you absorbed in reading:

1. The company policies and procedures manual so you can update it.

2. The latest industry magazine or the book from that efficiency expert you loved at the last conference.

3. A biography of someone whose life inspires you.

4. A New York Times bestseller on world trends and rapid change.

Now total your score.

Each "1" response is worth 1 point.
Each "2" response is worth 2 points.
Each "3" response is worth 3 points.
Each "4" response is worth 4 points.

Where do you fall?

10-15 Points: Dusty Baker

You are a supportive manager. You know the policies and procedures well and try to keep everyone playing nice together. You don't think out of the box much, but you provide steady, consistent guidance.

A company finds you valuable because you keep chaos to a minimum and have tolerance for the things that don't go right all the time. You keep the wheels moving and the drama to a minimum. You won't instigate innovation, or lead the company to No. 1, but you will keep the routine going respectably while the innovation takes place.

If you can engage your teams in a more cooperative manner you'll increase productivity and might surface some new ideas. Try reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni.

16-25 points: Phil Jackson

You're good at handling the complexities of a game with many players. You can make adjustments on the fly to keep everyone focused on winning today's game. You have a strategy for the season, but you also believe you can only play one game at a time. You know how to handle a myriad of intense personalities and get them going in the same direction even if they don't all play at their best.

A company needs you because the world changes and you can't run everything the same way forever. You have the ability to take the team members through minor disruptions and get them to improve processes along the way while keeping them happy and satisfied.

You can improve your output by engaging the team in the real numbers of the business. You'll quickly surface hidden talents and energy that will make your team stand out.

Read The Great Game Of Business by Jack Stack and Bo Burlingham to learn how.

26-35 Points: Warren Buffet

You are excellent at recognizing trends and establishing pathways to exploit them. You have no problem inspiring the troops in both hard and exciting times. Your delegation skills are excellent, which allows future leaders to rise and expand on your efforts.

A company needs you because innovative success can't all come from dreaming and ideating. Practical visionaries have to take what exists and build it exponentially without letting the wheels come off the bus.

You can take a step forward for yourself by picturing yourself at the top of the heap and reverse engineering the leader you truly want to be. Try reading The 5 Temptations of a CEO by Patrick Lencioni to help you unleash your preferred future.

36-40 Points: Moses

Your vision is powerful and persuasive. You have the ability to convince large groups of people to pick up and follow you into the wilderness, and great instincts about where to find the Promised Land. When you make mistakes, they can be big ones, but you stay focused on getting everyone safely through the crisis.

You're not the best for maintaining the team on a day-to-day basis, so delegate well to your managers. Use your time for what you do best: exploring, creating, inspiring, and motivating. Give yourself a lot of thinking time so you can resist the impulse of snap-decision orders.

A company needs you because the markets move fast and someone has to set the course. But that same person must show diligence and discipline in understanding that every opportunity is not a good one.

Try reading Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish so you can understand how leadership and management work together for highly productive execution that will lead everyone to the land of milk and honey
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Take This Important Quiz: Are You a Better Manager or Leader?

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The world is filled with managers and leaders. Both are quite necessary for a successful business, but rarely does someone completely master the traits of both. Often visionary entrepreneurs are moved aside for someone who can keep things steady and smooth.

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Is it important for managers to also be leaders? Should companies consider leadership traits in hiring managers or should that not be important? I think depending on the position, leadership traits should be considered. After all, to be a good leader, you should first know how to be a good follower.

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Top 10 Differences Between Managers and Leaders

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This short video from @ScottWilliams provides 10 Clear and Distinct ideas to help understand the difference between a manager and a leader.

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"Management is doing things right, while leadership is doing the right things."