Leadership is often touted with a lot of theories from books, training and discussions and sometimes it really sounds complicated and you would probably think you aren’t cut out for it. But here’s the simple truth:
Anyone can become a leader or a boss for that matter and when you get there you would have to know when to skillfully switch your responsibilities as a leader or a boss.
Organizations and corporations nowadays seem overtly managed and poorly led and people tend to get confused between these two roles. What we need to understand is that these two aspects are complementary to one another. Each has its unique characteristics.
The role of a boss or a manager is to deal with the complex issues of large organizations and use strategies to ensure a smooth running of the organization. A leader, on the other hand has to cope with the changes due to technological advancements or globalization, which could bring unrest and a sort of volatility in the organization.
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Sometimes people have extremely wrong notions about what a boss is. They think a boss is someone who always has a huge ego, thinks he/she is always right and never wants to be challenged by an employee. But a boss is a person who is actually responsible for maintaining a collaborative culture of work in their organization and handles the more complex business dealings.
It is essential for most people to understand when to become a boss and when to lead a group. The world has too many bosses who are portrayed as someone people should be afraid of and organizations lack true leaders who can settle disputes and unrest. One should ideally be capable enough to take up both roles whichever a situation demands. Those who can skillfully differentiate between the two leave an impact on their employees and they are respected and admired.
Whichever role you take up, you have to be humble and flexible in your decision and make sure you’ve heard everyone’s opinion in your team. You have to take calculative risks and see a failure as a lesson. After all, risks are important for innovation and progress.
It is not unnatural to say that the world already has too many bosses. What the world is lacking is a true leader with all its virtues and the innate capability of switching roles whenever required.
