How to know if you are a leader or a bossBy David Kiger

Image courtesy of John Lester at Flickr.com

Some people may find it difficult to identify the difference between a leader and a boss. Let’s say that both leaders and bosses could play the same role at the same time, or play just one, in other words, a leader could be a boss and a boss could be a leader, but not all bosses are leaders and not all leaders are bosses. Here you will find the differences between them so that you can identify which one you are in your company.

A leader is a person who inspires, guides and leads a group of people to achieve a purpose or a common cause. Those employees who follow leaders by their own will set upon them a moral authority that inspires respect. As a leader, it is not possible to only think of personal benefits, but of all people being guided. Force or violence are absolutely not necessary tools for a leader. His own example is a model. There are many characteristics attributed to leaders, such as they are responsible, innovative, inspiring and visionary, as well as intelligent, charming, original and practitioner of moral principles. In some cases, certain leader followers may incur in fanaticism and idolatry which as all extremes are not necessarily good.

A boss is a person in charge of a workplace. There are several ranks for bosses, they could go from the highest positions in the company to the lowest. Anyway, they all make part of a chain; employees must respond to them, and they likewise must respond to their own bosses, except in cases where the owner is the very boss. Bosses’ main motivation for work is money and they are not directly responsible for, and sometimes, nor even interested in ensuring employees’ welfare. Employees under their supervision show respect of their authority given the position and power they hold in the company but not necessarily because of empathy or admiration towards them; so they end up adjusting to the decisions their bosses make and avoiding questioning them which may lead to work absenteeism and lack of motivation.

In spite of these attempts of definitions, let’s remember that these two roles are interchangeable; a boss can also be a leader if he can inspire those under his supervision, as well as if he cares for his employees’ or coworkers’ welfare and works to make this benefit to be reflected on profits to the company. However, bosses are generally known to impose their authority, while leaders inspire their followers. Often bosses are perceived as people who only give orders, while leaders are perceived as advisors or living examples with their own actions. Some people find a leader more effective than a boss because he is usually more productive and his team has a better performance.

Image courtesy of rama_miguel at Flickr.com

We highly recommend you to become a mix of these two roles in order to be one step closer to success. If you aren’t sure yet whether you behave more as a boss or as a leader and you are interested in knowing, you can answer the following questions to have a better idea. Take your time, reflect upon each situation and be honest!

• When you are working with your team, do you inspire fear or do you make an effort to build trust?

• Do you tend to talk to your team members using ‘I’ or ‘We’?• Do you stress the importance of doing a task or you show your team

members how this task will forge a future?• Do you base your relationships with your team on authority or

cooperation?• Do you keep your distance and just direct or take you time to guide and

support?• Do you focus on finding who to blame for a short outcome or solve

problems and fix mistakes?• Do you generate frustration among the members of your team or you

promote enthusiasm toward learning and improving?

• Do you work using 10% of your time to direct the team or you work using 90% of your time to cooperate with the process?

• Do you make projects and tasks sound monotonous or interesting?

• Do you tend to see problems and disasters as the end of the company or as opportunities for the team to improve and exceed?

• Do you impose your authority or your power was given by your team members?

If most of your answers coincide with the second option of the questions above, you are a natural leader! It will be easy for you to interact with your team and together you will develop great ideas and grow as persons. We are sure that you will remember the difference between you and a boss: the boss would go, ‘do, go, act’; while you will go, ‘let’s do, let’s go, let’s act’.