I read a tweet this week that got me thinking about the differences between being a Boss and being a Leader. According to a recent study by Robert Half, 49% of professionals surveyed have quit a job due to a bad boss. Bad Boss or Good Boss, being a Boss doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a Leader…much less a Good Leader.
As I reflect on my career, I recall a time when I was “that Boss”. I probably helped a few talented people quit a job because I was “that Bad Boss.” Fortunately, I had a great Leader who did an intervention, of sorts, calling me out that if I didn’t “change my ways” I wasn’t going to go very far. It was a tough transition; but with a lot of effort, encouragement and support, I became a better boss and I became a Leader.
Based on my experience, here are the key differences between being a Boss and being a Leader:
1) Bosses Instruct – Leaders Inspire. A boss tells the team what to do, while a leader shares her vision of where she wants her group (her team, her department, her company) to go and lets the team determine how to get there. According to Christine Macdonald, director of The Hub Events, "The biggest difference between a leader and a boss is that a good leader inspires people and makes them excited about their work."
2) Bosses Hold You Accountable – Leaders Let You Be Accountable. As a boss, I found myself creating checklists and spreadsheets for the actions my direct reports were assigned to complete. Every week during meetings with my team, I’d reference these lists to “make sure” they were completing the tasks. As I transitioned to a Leader, I let each team member create their own priorities, share those priorities with their team members and report out during weekly, monthly, and quarterly meetings on how they were progressing. This gave them the tools and confidence to be accountable to themselves and to their team members.
3) Bosses Correct You – Leaders Help You Learn. One piece of feedback I got during the “intervention” was a comment that one of my employees that left the company made during the exit interview: “There’s only one way and it’s Kathy Jo’s way.” Ouch! And my initial response was “Well, I’m just trying to make sure they do it right and don’t mess up.” As I transitioned to a Leader, I learned that mistakes and failures are opportunities to learn. As a Leader, my job was not to make sure they don’t mess up, my job was to help them not be afraid to fail and learn from those failures.
4) Bosses Measure Their Own Success – Leaders Measure Your Success. A Boss measures success according to the results she is driving, her own performance and advancement in the organization. A Leader measures her success by how well she is developing the people around her. I feel a great sense of pride when I see the individuals who once reported to me, now operating as very successful leaders in the company (or in other organizations). Knowing I somehow made an impact on their life and career is the ultimate reward of transitioning from a Boss to a Leader.
These are the top 4 differences for me. What do you think? Please share any feedback, stories or additional differentiators in the comments.
Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash