Are you a boss or a leader? Let’s find out together

Being a leader is quite different from being a boss. A leader has real authority and can get her staff to happily execute tasks as if their thought of it themselves, while a boss is only listened to because of their position.

What causes this? Let’s find out together.

Leaders attract a following of people who believe in their vision, while bosses have people who do work for them without necessarily caring about the said vision.

Bosses care about the execution of tasks and managing the workflow while leaders, on the other hand, influence and inspire people to action.

A major difference between a boss and a leader is that you don’t have to hold a management job title to be a leader.

Not all bosses are leaders, and not all leaders are bosses.
However, imagine being a boss with great leadership skills?

What sets leaders apart is that:

Leaders have a long-term vision for the future and spend less time focused on the day-to-day tasks and more time envisioning what lies ahead.

They share insights and knowledge with staff and help the team key into the overall vision of the company.
Bosses, however, only think of how to execute the goals without bothering about ensuring that their team members are a part of the long term vision.

Leaders are emotionally intelligent and have a high level of self-awareness, empathy and social skills.
Leaders practice emotional intelligence by reflecting upon how they react to people and circumstances, pay attention to how those people are feeling.
They respond rather than react by taking a moment to pause before answering someone.

We all know a lot of bosses have only one or none of these and aren’t people we would want to associate with outside the confines of the workspace.

Leaders are lifelong learners and frequently go outside comfort zones.

Committing oneself to do something that is outside of your subject matter of expertise not only helps you to learn a new skill but allows you to practice getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Leaders also ask for input because being an effective leader requires listening to feedback.

While bosses, on the other hand, tend to delegate tasks and focus on getting the work done irrespective of the skill level of the person assigned the task.

Leaders take responsibility when things go wrong and try to find a way to make things work when plans don’t do so well while bosses find who to blame and hold responsible for the failure of the crime.