Boss or Leader
Leadership Thought of the Day
I regularly get notifications by people wanting to connect with me on the professional network LinkedIn. Often times it is a contact from somebody that I know such as a co-worker or a past acquaintance. As my network of contacts continues to grow however, I am receiving more requests from people reaching out to connect with me who I am unfamiliar with and who come from vastly different businesses, industries or countries. Before I accept any connection, (and I typically end up accepting most of them), I always read their profile. You can gain a quick glimmer into people’s backgrounds with just a quick scroll down the page.
While scanning one of the profiles offered form a recent connection request I realized that I have been seeing a trend in many of them lately. It is not at all uncommon to come across the statement in the opening profile that the person is a “leader”. I’ve noticed this more and more and have started to keep track of how many people put this comment into their LinkedIn profile/resume.
When I come across that statement, I pause a bit and look for other supporting comments that might give a clue as to how or where they might be a leader. Sometimes comments relative to community or church involvement, professional society involvement or perhaps their position at their place of employment give a little more insight into their leadership position.
Seeing this comment so often however the skeptical side of me creeps in and I can come away with the following:
1. There are a lot of great leaders out there.
2. There are a lot of people who think they are a great leader, whether or not they actually are.
3. There are a lot of people who think being a leader is a key selling point on their resume
4. Many people are in a hierarchy of management in their business, and they sum that up by calling themselves leaders.
I suppose that any combination of the above can be true, of course, but I imagine that number four is most likely the predominate reason many people articulate the point that they are a leader. As a manager of a business or any enterprise, they see themselves as leaders in that arena. They tell people what to do, and therefore they are leaders.
Unfortunately, people who find themselves in this role can often confuse being a manager with being a leader. Management and leadership are not synonyms and they are not the same thing. The Venn diagram of the two indeed has some overlap space, but at the end of the day, they are very different constructs.
The differences between leadership and management are many and I will dwell on them from time to time. In simple terms, managers are paid to keep things running smoothly, according to plan and following set procedures. They essentially tell their associates what needs to be accomplished, usually instruct and train people how to accomplish their tasks, and ensure that they are all fulfilling their assigned tasks. They are in fact, “The Boss”.
Leadership may on occasion reflect some of those traits, but true leadership is by its very nature creating change as opposed to following a set instruction. Sometimes the process or plan is insufficient, in error or missing altogether for the presenting challenge. The leader is the one who is looking for and creating a way to win. They are the one who have a vision for a better way to accomplish a mission, and have the ability to convincingly communicate that vision to the critical mass of those they need to lead. They cast their vision and they continually inspire and motivate others to willing go in that direction, to put their best effort into achieving something significant that would otherwise be elusive.
My wife recently forwarded the following picture to me that I think really captures this point in a visible way.
It captures in a simple sketch what I think is an essential difference between being a manager and being a leader. I hope this might make a good reminder to all of us when we are faced with a daunting challenge and need to bring our best leadership skills and talents to bear. (And perhaps LinkedIn could somehow incorporate this into their site to help people better define themselves…).
Stay Strong,
Terry
