Boss Vs. Leader: True Differences or Myths?

Myth 1?

Bosses are above the team while leaders are part of the team, bosses explain and leaders inspire.

Lately, I have been writing to bridge the gap between a boss and a leader. Since then I have received some interesting messages. Some define the differences between a boss and a leader while others wish to make me understand why leaders are better.

It’s been my lifelong belief that duality i.e., black or white is a futile discussion because life most certainly happens in grey.

This is what I get most often for people who want to push the Boss Vs Leader debate.?

• A Leader Leads, A Boss Drives

Imagine there were four steering wheels in every car and all of you started driving it simultaneously. Will you ever be able to reach your destination? Trust me you would require a lot of denting and painting in your vehicle.

Now imagine there were three steering wheels and one person to lead. Surely, you would have a better chance of reaching safely, but does that make sense? If there is one person driving with their intellect, others can surely concentrate on what they are good at.

Remember, whether boss or leader they are part of the team, sometimes they need to take the driver's seat and drive on, others they may need to make you drive but indulge in back seat driving and yet others they may just tell you where to arrive and let you go.?

It depends on what as per their judgment is the best approach?

Source: Giphy

• Bosses explain; leaders inspire

Bosses just explain the task and leave it to employees while leaders support and guide you through it. For some people, constant support may also mean constant poking. Constant guiding can also mean killing creativity.

This trait really varies from person to person. Some people wish to research the whole thing by themselves while others want to make use of their own brains. Just explaining the task and leaving it to employees generally leads to creative results. Being an employee what actually will you learn if you were spoonfed?

This is where the feedback that I talked about in the previous post is important. We need to reach out always to discuss what works and what does not.

• Bosses inspire fear; Leaders generate enthusiasm

Imagine if there were no rules. There was no fear of getting punished by the authorities. More crime scenes could be seen across the cities. Constructive fear is one of the reasons there is enthusiasm for working right. Fear is something that drives us to go river rafting, fear is empowering and fear is fun.

Source: Tenor

We wear masks because we fear the coronavirus pandemic. This has helped us contain the disease and still head towards shiny days. If there was no fear, would you still be working? I don’t think so. Therefore, let’s come to the conclusion that fear is also generating enthusiasm.

Don’t get me wrong here. I am not ‘literally’ talking about fear here, but rules and regulations and clear rewards and punishments. If a boss can reward you, (s)he can also penalise you. Channelising fear and stress are extremely important.

• A boss knows how it’s done; a leader shows how it’s done (My Favourite)

To show how it’s done someone must know how it's done. So does that mean everybody taps their boss instinct before being a leader?

To invent the light bulb, Edison required 1,000 unsuccessful attempts. He failed because he tried on his own, he invented not reproduced. By showing all the methods to do a task, a leader (as per this definition) is killing your entrepreneurial qualities. So do you want to develop yourself or do you want everything to be served prepared on your plate?

• Boss Vs. Leader: In a Nutshell

Boss vs leader is an endless topic that people have different views of. I believe, as I said in my earlier post and article, it all depends on the mentality you look with.

Source: BrainGymmer

Let’s trust our leaders, let’s trust our instincts, and let’s be positive about our bosses or leaders. But I definitely agree that there is no excuse for bad behaviour. This article is an effort to bring out the fact that people in most situations are good, we just need to understand them and give them an opportunity to understand us.