Look at these:
I am so tired of this leader versus manager, boss vs manager, leader vs boss differences. In fact there are none. I believe that those who make these comparisons don’t get the following:
You can’t compare managers to leaders.
Leadership is a function of management.
So a manager is a leader, by default.
Not all leaders are good. Being a “leader” is not a guarantee of anything. You can lead people into the abyss just as well as you can lead them up the mountain top.
You can’t compare bosses to managers.
Only those who directly pay are bosses.
The boss is the owner or the client.
Being a boss excludes being a manager. Managers have bosses. Bosses cannot be leaders because they have nothing to lead.
The problem with this hype thrown at “leading” is that everyone wants to be a leader. No one wants to manage anymore. But in reality there are 2% opportunities to lead and 98% opportunities to manage.
Look inside your company: how many ground breaking, industry changing, growth hacking, 10x improvement projects are currently happening now? Well, my guess is not many. How many customer-centric, feature-centric, technical debt fixing projects are currently happening? My guess is many.
Leading and leadership are awesome.
You know what company I like to work for? The one where I feel like I am my own leader and the manager does his job well and gives me confidence.
Confidence first.
Freedom from everything else that prevents me from doing my job. And in doing my job, I can be my very own leader. And only when I wonder about where are “we” going, should the leader in my manager take the stage and tell me about it.
Most companies are not Amazon, Microsoft, Google or Facebook. Most companies are Automattic, 37Signals or lower. And that’s counting success only. In the mundane, boring “normal” companies management is key and leadership is a day to day activity included in the normal manager role.
It is not manager vs leader, leader vs boss. It is good manager versus bad manager.