[October 13, 2017] A good friend of mine who retired from the U.S. Air Force was offered an hourly-wage job at a local car dealership. After meeting with the man who would be his boss at the job, my friend turned it down. In the Air Force my friend was used to leaders not bosses. It makes a difference; boss or leader.
Once as a teenager wanting to get a job at a gas station close to my home, the owner asked me if I was the kind of person I would eventually like to be when I grew up; someone’s boss or a leader of men. I was dumbfounded by the question and my answer was as likely confusing. The station owner Mr. Amato hired me anyway and taught me the ways of leaders (see link).
“When I talk to managers, I get the feeling that they are important. When I talk to leaders, I get the feeling that I am important.” – Alexander Den Heijer, Dutch inspirational speaker
I don’t normally provide lists but in order to save space the matrix below will spell out the general idea of the difference between a boss and a leader. While a leader can be a boss, not every boss is a leader. This list is just a taste of the differences:
From military history one lesson stands above the rest; those who best lead their people into battle do so from the front. Their soldiers may have been afraid but were nevertheless willing to go into harm’s way because their leader was right there with them. Leaders are there with their people to show the way and are an integral part of the team.1
Bosses hire people for a job because they are convinced that person can do the work required. Those folks will work for money and will be satisfied. Leaders hire people who believe what they believe. Those folks do not work because of money or position but because they are the ones that are convinced what they are doing is the right thing.
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- A struggle that many good leaders have is the ease at using the methods of a boss (e.g., placing blame on others, demanding results). Those ways of getting things done are tempting but are only a shortcut to achieving a task or mission and must be balanced with the work environment established earlier by the leader. There are many lessons that we can learn from good leadership that should be applied to any “boss” who wants a better performing workplace.