Leadership - Being a Leader people follow vs. a Boss people resent

[2Rocky]

What actions makes you the Second vs the Upper image?

Are their times you should be the Boss vs a Leader?

 

[Modern Man Advice]

I don't think you necessarily need to be in front pulling the weight to be a leader. Being a leader is a rather complex concept because there are different kinds of leaders and different situations that require a leader. We know wolves are a prime example of leadership from behind, so not "leading" the way but making sure the pack stays together and has an overview of the group, making sure no one gets left behind.

Natural leaders tend to encourage others to lead and have an innate ability to create other leaders. But I also think leadership requires respect, and respect is earned through your actions. So there will be times you need to be the first in line pulling that weight. I just don't think that should always be the case because you are not building a group or individuals to lead themselves.

Plus not all natural leaders have the same abilities. In the picture above, true leadership recognizes the strengths and weaknesses of each of the members in his group and coordinates accordingly. If he, himself, is not physically strong then there is no point in him pulling the weight, his ability is found somewhere else.

My two cents.


Modern Man Advice

 

[ubercat]

I m a contract PM by trade. Believe me permie managers hoard the stars and give me the C team to deliver with every time. Everything people is like dating a mix of tough and tender gets it done. Agree with the modern sales guy you have to treat your team as human. Know some personal stuff about them and don't be that arsehat who only talks to people when he wants something.

 

[BackInTheGame78]

Care about them as people, treat them as valued employees, get to know them and build relationships with them.

When people know you care about them they are far more likely to go the extra mile for you and will never want to let you down.

When things go poorly, you take the blame. When things go well, you praise the employees and deflect credit from yourself. People will follow you to the end of the earth just from that alone.

Everyone gets held to the same standard. Nobody gets special treatment. When you need to have tough conversations with employees who aren't pulling their weight, you focus on the actions that need to be corrected, let them know you believe in them and that you know they will get it corrected and not let you down and ask for their input in how they feel they can fix the situation. Not only have you now gotten their buy in because they now feel included in the process, they also now don't want you to be wrong for believing in them and will work that much harder to live up to your praise for them. Otherwise they will internally know they are not worthy of it and it will be a big blow to their ego. And nobody wants that.

It's really that simple. People skills.

Prior to my software engineering days I was a manager in several industries. I specialized in fixing broken and underperforming locations...it all started with the people. Sometimes you had to let some go who were problems because they effected the morale of everyone else there who wanted to do a good job. Then when you hired their replacements you had to make sure they would fit in with the good people you had left. Once you fixed that problem, the rest came pretty easy. But that's where most people failed. They didn't want to fire anyone and be the "bad" guy. Unfortunately that's part of the job description. You're job as a manager is to do whatever is necessary to get optimal results. Ensuring you had the right people working for you and the wrong people gone was the first step in that

 

[Bible_Belt]

Leader of the pack fights the stray dog.

 

[Bokanovsky]

I don't think you necessarily need to be in front pulling the weight to be a leader. Being a leader is a rather complex concept because there are different kinds of leaders and different situations that require a leader. We know wolves are a prime example of leadership from behind, so not "leading" the way but making sure the pack stays together and has an overview of the group, making sure no one gets left behind.

Natural leaders tend to encourage others to lead and have an innate ability to create other leaders. But I also think leadership requires respect, and respect is earned through your actions. So there will be times you need to be the first in line pulling that weight. I just don't think that should always be the case because you are not building a group or individuals to lead themselves.

Plus not all natural leaders have the same abilities. In the picture above, true leadership recognizes the strengths and weaknesses of each of the members in his group and coordinates accordingly. If he, himself, is not physically strong then there is no point in him pulling the weight, his ability is found somewhere else.

My two cents.


Modern Man Advice

Well said. People these days are too prone to binary thinking. They think of everything in terms of good vs. bad, right vs. wrong, correct vs. incorrect. There can be only one solution to a problem, one way of doing things, one template to fit every situation. That is the reason why our society has become so polarized (i.e. consider how people perceive politics these days compared to past decades). But of course, real life is anything but binary. Most real-life problems require contextual analysis and cannot be solved through a rigid application of some preconceived template. This is a bit off-topic and philosophical but I have come to believe that binary, black and white thinking is the main reason why most people struggle in life, whether it's with the opposite sex, careers or anything else. On a fundamental level, binary thinking is a marker of inferior intellect and sign that our society is in decline.

 

[Bigpapa]

Well said. People these days are too prone to binary thinking. They think of everything in terms of good vs. bad, right vs. wrong, correct vs. incorrect. There can be only one solution to a problem, one way of doing things, one template to fit every situation. That is the reason why our society has become so polarized (i.e. consider how people perceive politics these days compared to past decades). But of course, real life is anything but binary. Most real-life problems require contextual analysis and cannot be solves through a rigid application of some preconceived template. This is a bit off-topic and philosophical but I have come to believe that binary, black and white thinking is the main reason why most people struggle in life, whether it's with the opposite sex, careers or anything else. On a fundamental level, binary thinking is a marker of inferior intellect and sign that our society is in decline.

Binary thinking is the result of little to no critical thinking , which results to no learnings from things that happen , which results to decline

If you do not adapt , you die or become irrelevant