The leadership discussion is about desired leadership vs. undesired leadership attributes. It is not about leaders vs managers vs bosses.
I have seen many discussions over the years about what people see as a good leader verses a bad leader. Typically people associate bad or undesirable leadership attributes with “Manager” or “Boss”. By examining the official definitions I will show that this association is not justified. Also that the comparison being made is desirable leadership attributes vs undesired ones.
Definitions
There are many online dictionaries, I like to use the Oxford English dictionary. According to the oxford dictionary the definition of a leader is “The person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country“. Leadership is the action of leading.
To lead is defined as “Show (someone or something) the way to a destination by going in front of or beside them“. This is the kind of leadership most people desire and see as good leadership. It demonstrates that the leader values the follower or puts the follower before themselves.
Command is defined as “Have authority over; be in charge of (a unit).” So you can be a leader with or without authority. The bad leadership attributes discussed are associated with the abuse of command, lack of integrity and ego.
A manager is “A person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or group of staff.” A boss is “A person who is in charge of a worker, group, or organization.“, very similar to a manager. Managers are responsible therefor they are given authority or “command” within an organisation.
Desired Leadership as a Manager
Considering theses definition we can see that as a manager you can take three approaches to managing an organisation. You can “lead” and take your team along for the ride with common purpose, agreement and support. You can command based on authority with fairness and clear expectations and still have the respect of your team. The team may not find you inspirational but they will do the job as directed because it is their job. Finally the third way is what most people associate as being undesirable leadership and associate with “managers”. You can abuse the command and authority and use power to get your team to do what you want. It works on the short term but most often fails in the long run.
Conclusion
Therefore we can see that being a manager or boss does not instantly make you a bad leader. Hence assigning undesirable leadership characteristics to managers and bosses is unjustified. I have worked with many managers who were good at their job and did not abuse their authority. However they were not necessarily inspirational leaders. I’m sure many people probably have worked with similar managers.
So the leadership discussion is not about job position, it is about how you use or abuse your authority when you are a leader. Certainly understanding desired leadership attributes is very important for project managers because we have to mold teams and lead them. Also we take them on a journey from the start of a project to the successful finish.
Lachlan Mollison – A servant leader project manager
Contact us to discuss your leadership requirements.