Leadership and Ethical Decision-Making: Sample Memo

To: Compliance Officers

From: Joseph Sanders

Date: 11/19/2011

Re: Role as Compliance Officer at ECG

I would like to welcome you all and to give you a block of instruction on the role of managers and leaders, as well as their differences. I will hopefully shed some light on the perspective roles and will use them to achieve results while I am assigned as the compliance officer here at ECG. I will be also discussing what this role intels and what I think about what makes a great leader or manager. When we look at what a leader is, a leader can be said to be one that is capable of convincing other people to get things accomplished that will in essence benefit a team or organization. He or she is basically a decision maker. This in fact can be done in a very influentially or effective manner. Leaders are actually ones that are labeled as being very proficient in their skill and lead from the front. Being able to do this allows a leader to gain the trust and confidence of his subordinates and superiors. Leaders also have the ability to be able to put things together efficiently, are very good at brainstorming, and be an overall performer. If we talk about steps that allow a leader to be effective we must look at how well the organizational skills of a particular leader are. Things that differentiate leaders from average people is that they as we know, each person has different attitudes, ethics, values, beliefs and etc. As from the words of Brian Tracy from the entrepreneur.com website, "Leaders are made, not born." (Tracy, B., 2008). In saying this, leaders can actually enhance their abilities by emulating what other successful leaders have done before them previously. This is what will help to get an understanding what needs to be done to motivate others and how to deal with the different behaviors that you have to work with. As a said before, leadership goes through a number of steps in the development phase. Good leaders thrive on putting together competent team members that will assist him or her in achieving the organizations vision and goals. This is labeled as his role of forming a team. With this team, the necessary brainstorming is done in hopes of making the organization better as a whole. In saying this also, this is the area where a true leader has to be very patient with his team because of the fact that we are all different and have different beliefs and attitudes about any given subject. The next step that helps to make a leader better is how well he or she handles that brainstorming that I talked about previously. During this particular phase, team members can get an idea of the strength and weaknesses of and every team member and how they can come together to achieve the desired results for the organization. Norming is the next where standard operating procedures and what is expected by all are put together so that the team feels understands it totally and are confident in the success of it. The last of the phases is that of performing, where the results of whatever it is that was part of the vision and mission of the organization turned out. The main thing, in my opinion that labels one as a good leader is how well their subordinates and superiors respect them as a result of their being able to get missions accomplished via a team environment (Tracy, B., 2008).

When we look at a manager, we could say that they are someone who is very capable of providing leadership and a sense of organization to a variety of employees or persons. They actually are overseers of production and ensure that guidelines are met in regards to the organization. Managers are people that are extreme when it comes to problem-solving. They are considered subject matter experts and are very good at organizing people and resources , staffing , directing , and as I said before, being overseers of those under them. Managers are very different than that of leaders because they actually are managers of employees to make sure that procedures and tasks are followed and results are gotten in a timely manner. Managers control or monitor an organizations performance per se to ensure that goals are being achieved by appending to costs and performance measures. Managers also have a knack for sharing some pertinent performance information with employees which helps to build that trust and confidence level among the team (Rothbauer, 2009).

There are numerous differences between a leader and a manager. For instance, a leader basically is a motivator and wants to help the company or organization achieve its goals. Then in regards to a manager, they are ones that want to motivate employees and give them the incentive to reach company objectives. A leader is a direction giver, who assist in getting results of the company objectives and mission, a manager is the one who makes policies or strategies which will help the organization achieve its goals. Leaders are the ones that are the example setters and the managers are the overseers of things. The main difference though between the two is that a leader is just that but a manager has to basically be skilled in both areas and have to follow orders directed by the leader. A manger can give suggestions but the leader actually ends up making the final decision when it is all said and done (Rothbauer, 2009).

In conclusion, I hope that I have given you a better understanding of the roles and their differences.

References:

Entrepreneur Media, Inc., (2011). The Role of a Leader. Retrieved on November 16, 2011 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/189618

Rothbauer-Wanish, H., (2009). Four Functions of a Manager. Retrieved on November 15, 2011 from http://heather-rothbauer-wanish.suite101.com/four-functions-of-management-a113463

Tracy, B., (2008). Role of Leaders. Retrieved on November 15, 2011 from an article in http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/189618