We all might be familiar with leaders and bosses. However, did we think why these are two different terms? I know in our day-to-day life we might be unknowingly calling our manager a boss but he might be a leader. Sounds confusing? So, let’s deep dive further to understand the difference between a boss and a leader.
1. Leaders motivate, Bosses criticize
A leader is someone who motivates his team members to perform well even if something goes wrong. A leader knows the importance of words and he will likely say in such a manner that it motivates his employees to improve further.
On the other hand, bosses behave in an authoritarian way. They do not believe in motivating their employees. Instead, they believe in instilling fear among them so that the employees work even harder. So, if something goes wrong for his team members, the boss will likely criticize them and may even give a warning that they can get fired if their performance does not improve.
2. Leaders listen, Bosses ignore
Listening is one of the important skills of a leader. If an employee needs to provide suggestions for any process improvement in the team, a leader will listen patiently to the suggestion. After listening, he will respond with his views. The leader may not necessarily accept the suggestion immediately but he will likely take some time to think about it and then respond. This behavior of the leader will make the employee satisfied and the employee would feel that his suggestion was at least heard even if it does not get implemented.
On the contrary, bosses feel that they are the only ones to decide on an important matter. They will never ask the team for any suggestions. If someone comes up with any suggestion, a boss will blatantly refuse the suggestion without even listening fully. The boss will do always whatever he feels is right. The boss may not even provide a reason as to why the suggestion provided by the employee is wrong. Hence, this is quite obvious that an employee will get demotivated if a boss behaves in such a manner.
3. Leaders are approachable, Bosses are not
Leaders try to create an atmosphere in the team in a manner that the employees do not hesitate to reach out to their managers in case of any problems they are facing. When team members can share genuine concerns with their leader and the leader takes decisive actions, it helps to develop trust between the employee and his manager. Leaders will try to keep some time for hearing your concerns amidst his busy schedule.
On the other hand, bosses will likely make you feel that they are quite busy even if they are not. They will not adjust their schedule to listen to your concerns. Even if they listen, they may ultimately blame you. Bosses have a feeling that their team members work ‘under’ him and therefore he is kind of superior. His ego would not let him interact with team members in a way that a leader does.
4. Leaders recognise their team members, Bosses do not
A good leader always gives the credit to his team members when a major goal of the team gets accomplished. This way employees feel more connected within the organization and they will work even harder next time.
However, a boss gives the credit to himself when the team worked day in and out to meet the project deadline. In this case, employees feel disengaged with the organization and may think of quitting as a result.
5. Leaders accept mistakes, Bosses never
A leader owns up to a mistake caused by his team members. Since the leader is anyways leading the team, he has the maturity to support his team member because of whom a critical issue happened. Instead of blaming him for his mistake, he would likely have a one-to-one conversation with the employee and would try to understand what caused the mistake and how they can work together to make sure this does not happen again.
A boss, on the other hand, would never accept the mistake caused by his team member. Instead of understanding the reason behind the mistake, the boss would criticize and blame the person for doing the mistake.
6. Leaders are not driven by rank whereas bosses are
Leaders are open to suggestions from anyone, even if that comes from the junior member of the team. Ranks and hierarchy do not matter to them when it comes to improving the existing process within the organization.
Bosses are quite the opposite. They will value suggestions only from members who are at par with his designation or superior to him. They would not encourage suggestions from junior members of the team.
7. Leaders guide, Bosses do not guide
Great leaders always guide the team in the right direction. They serve as the mentor and coach the team. In terms of crisis, guidance will be of great value to the team.
Bosses, on the other hand, do not believe in guiding. If things go wrong during a crisis, he will instead blame the team members for not performing to the expectation.
8. Leaders take a collaborative decision, Bosses dictate
Leaders work together with their team members to come up with a collaborative decision. They do not decide on their own.
Bosses dictate to their team members on what to do rather than taking a collaborative approach. If the decision proves to be wrong, it can be fatal to the organization.
9. Leaders lead from the front, Bosses do not
Leaders set an example in front of others by taking a difficult assignment and making sure that gets done promptly. When a leader leads from the front, his team members get automatically more energized and put their best effort into whatever they are working on at that point.
However, bosses never lead from the front. They always expect their team members to get the job done for them.
10. Leaders are humble, bosses are egocentric
A great leader never demeans any of his team members. He understands that his team member also deserves the same amount of respect. Great leaders are humble. When a leader is humble, then only people would feel more approachable towards him.
On the other hand, most of the bosses are egocentric. Since they think that they are superior to their team members, they always want to show off. However, those bosses don’t understand that this type of behavior will infact make others uncomfortable to reach out to them.
Conclusion
I hope you understood the difference between a leader and a boss by now. I guess you can now understand why there are lots of courses on leadership training. Have you ever heard of any boss-related training? I am sure you did not as no courses like that exist and they will never exist.
Always strive to be a leader. This world requires great leaders and not self-centered bosses.
What are your views on this topic? Feel free to share in the comments below
Related topics:
Leadership lessons from Sourav Ganguly
Leadership lessons from MS Dhoni
Helpful info. Fortunate me I found your web site by chance, and I am shocked why this twist of fate didn’t came about earlier! I bookmarked it.
Thank you!
Superb blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers? I’m hoping to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you propose starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many choices out there that I’m completely overwhelmed .. Any recommendations? Thanks a lot!
I would recommend you to purchase a domain and hosting and then you can start your blog journey using WordPress. I am soon going to write an article on this topic. You can subscribe to my website to get the latest notifications.
Wonderful work! That is the kind of information that should be shared around the internet. Shame on the search engines for now not positioning this put up higher! Come on over and seek advice from my web site . Thank you =)
Thank you. I am glad you liked the article!