Leadership versus Being a Boss and Best-In-Class

Leadership versus being a boss and Best-In-Class

When one considers leadership, the mistake most often made is to think of leadership as the individual or individuals actually leading a company at the top. While this level of leadership is extremely important to a successful company, it is not enough to become Best-In-Class. Leadership is needed at all levels of a company if the company desires to be Best-In-Class. The difficulty here is that for most companies individuals are not promoted because of good leadership skills but rather some other skill more closely associated with job performance or personal familiarity with upper managers. What is the norm than is that a company has bosses at low, middle, and often upper management levels rather than leaders.

What is a boss, and how does it differ from a leader? A boss is usually someone who knows a given task or tasks well enough to pass that knowledge on to an individual or group of individuals. A boss is usually also someone who can accomplish the logistics of the position in an efficient and successful manner. These individuals are often promoted not so much because of what they can do but rather based upon who they know. This type of promotion can be considered a consequence of Leader-Member Exchange theory.

Within Leader-Member Exchange Theory the leader, in this case upper managers, creates an in-group and by default, an out-group. Most likely the in-group is the ones often being promoted because of familiarity and not necessarily because of leadership potential. This often provides adequate performance within a position, enough to keep a system like this propagating within a company or industry. But to achieve Best-In-Class more is needed.

With the advent and popularity of teams within companies as a form of improving productivity, many companies are now seeing the need for team leaders. Participative management such as utilizing teams is in most cases a method of moving low or non productive employees into a much more motivated attitude which in turn increases overall productivity. Giving employees more authority and autonomy can increase job ownership. Increased job ownership will increase a desire for better personal and team productivity and improved quality.

Even teams need leadership. Whether leadership is at the local level, within the team, or from someone above the team providing support for the team, leadership is mandatory for team success. You might say, “Wait we only have a facilitator in our team and we’re successful.” Leadership can take on many different looks and facilitator is one of them. Leadership can be both innate in individuals and it can also be taught. One only has to look at the proliferation of leadership schools available to business to see that many companies see leadership training as one of the most important needs for the successful future of their companies.

How important is true leadership? Without being political you only have to look as far as governments around the world to see firsthand what a leadership vacuum can do on a global economic front. Here in the U.S. are political processes are mired in red tape and inactivity primarily in my opinion because there is no real leadership anywhere within the U.S. government right now.

If any business desires to be Best-In-Class, then acquiring, building, or promoting real leaders is paramount. Leaders are individuals that people will want to follow. Leaders will create a motivational environment that generates highly successful subordinates as a natural outgrowth. Motivation is often confused with hype. Bosses can create hype. Leaders generate motivation. If you desire to be the best at management then find, build, or create leaders. Look for individuals that are already highly self-motivated. These may be individuals who are leaders in the making. Companies must start promoting individuals because of their potential for leadership as one of the primary attributes necessary to move up in a company.

Almost anyone can be logistically successful. These types of individuals will only create a mundane working environment that breads mediocrity. Only leaders have the ability to garner subordinate behavior and citizenship above and beyond mediocrity and into Best-In-Class.