Being a boss is easy, but being a leader, a true one at that can be challenging. You need to constantly know how to keep your subordinates engaged, empowered, and motivated. Hence, the fact that being at the top of the organizational chart can pave the way for more opportunities and financial benefits, being a leader is not a simple feat. Thus, you must also know how to differentiate between being a boss to being a leader.
In my nearly 15 years in the workforce, I had my fair share of various bosses and leaders combined. In fact, I have learned that you don’t need a high position to lead because leadership can be considered both a skill and a passion. However, I have also witnessed that there are advantages when one is given a position—to be one of the primary forces towards the accomplishment of the organization.
While great strategies can lead to the organization’s success, proper communication can ensure their effective implementation.
Being good at communicating is one skill that every leader should learn. While great strategies can lead to the organization’s success, proper communication can ensure their effective implementation. Leaders are usually at the forefront of such plans, and it is difficult to make do if one does not know how to effectively communicate.
High positions in an organization may include a starter pack: instant credibility, an ounce of automatic respect, benefits, and an instant voice. But this starter’s advantages require consistency and innovation, too, or proving that these factors that come in a position are in fact true for the privileged person. Otherwise, you will turn into someone people in the organization avoid or worse, hate.
Drawing from observations and experiences, here are some behaviors a leader should be mindful of daily:
Being a leader is different from being a boss.
Negative Facial Expressions and Body Language. It is true that “it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it,” aside from the tone of the voice, it is also pertinent to ensure that words are backed up with actions—literally. As a leader, part of the job is showcasing positive genuine actions towards your team members especially if situations do not also merit words but actions too. One could say he/she is happy for you, but it does not reflect on his/her face; thus, affecting his/her credibility altogether. There are various non-verbal offenders towards somebody in the workplace: furrowed brows, raised brows, scowling, stamping of feet, hard tapping on the table, etc.
Selectivity. In the initial part of this article, I have pointed out that being a boss is different from being a leader, and there is a pertinent reason why we should differentiate it. Leaders find their worth with the people they help and not the other way around. I have seen some leaders, or bosses rather, that ensure they are feared thinking that it equates to respect. Some are high on the pedestal that they see more value in themselves than the people and their kills combined. Leading is not only about putting direction to an office or a pack, but it is also about mentoring and integrating positivity, changes, and other new learnings (and even unlearning) into the organization.
One example employees had commonly come across before from a certain boss was a boss that reiterates he/she does not mingle with the staff because he/she wants to draw and maintain the line between his/her people. While it is a leadership style that we may all respect because of valid reasons, it does not work efficiently as leading. Leading involves people and not mingling with the people may not be leading at all. You do not need to be a ‘life of the party’ type of person to make this thing successful, you only need compassion. The higher you are in the organization, the more you must create ways how you can reach your people.
Staff often remark on how discouraging for them to see an immediate superior act in two different ways. One thing that I have also noticed from this type of boss is that they are selective. They only interact well and showcase respect to people who share the same designation as them or to people higher than them in the organization (thinking about their evaluation). However, higher-ups do not usually judge how you treat them, they evaluate how you treat people lower than you. Toxic, huh? It happens.
Disrupting and Micromanaging. There are many disruptions a bad leader does to his/her colleagues. One common experience employees often had was a boss calling them multiple times a day to tell them the exact same thing and they ended up not finishing the things delegated to them. This causes a stressful work environment especially since every office often works with a deadline. Staff habitually feel strained if the boss takes so much of their time and communicates ineffectively. Such disruptions could be a mere tiny interference at first but later lead to micromanaging.
As you reflect on this, such behaviors can be solved through proper communication in the workplace. Great leaders are expected to ensure soft skills are hard skills that are essential to every organization’s success. Otherwise, refusal to improve would mean one is not ready yet to lead.
The opinions expressed here do not represent those of any organization, individuals, or companies that I am affiliated with or employed by.
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