Are good managers necessarily good leaders?
— M.A. Good managers need good leadership abilities, and good leaders need good management abilities. Oftentimes, leadership and management skills are discussed as though they are mutually exclusive. Instead, I believe they are complementary. Circumstances often dictate which skill is most needed, and at any given point in time, one might be more critical than the other. For example, crisis management often requires very strong leadership skills. However, even effective crisis management ultimately requires an appreciation and understanding of the necessary underpinning management tasks and associated skills. I believe that both leadership and management skills can be learned and developed, and that both are necessary in order to be optimally successful — especially over the longer term. With software development positions migrating overseas, do you think an older professional with 20-plus years of software experience would be wise to retrain in network support and administration? Th
