Every Leader is a Manager but every Manager is not a Leader!
Do you agree with the above statement?
If you are a professional with some years of experience then you must have come across Managers who believe in controlling their sub-ordinates.
You also must have come across some colleagues who are not Managers but do a great job in showing a direction to the rest of the team.
So it is not necessary that you must become a Manager first, in order to lead others. It is your characteristic to care for others and show a direction to others which makes sense for them.
You need to be consistent with displaying your abilities that you care for your people and make sense with what you think and what you say and then it will be a matter of time that you get noticed and regarded as a leader and also get promoted to a Managerial position.
Leading is about enriching people with knowledge & skills and then empowering them, whereas Managing is about controlling people and disempowering them.
So, as a Manager you can get very fast results as you impose your decisions on your subordinates but eventually things will not be fruitful in the long term because ambitious people will start leaving you because of getting subdued due to lack of personal growth owing to the lack of freedom to express.
If you as a Manager try to retain your people by promising them a grand hike in salary and position, even then it will not impress them because they know that they will have to forego their personal development if they accept your offer because the work environment is going to be the same in which they will feel suppressed.
You will start to see remarkable long term results when you turn into a Leader from being a Manager.
You may have designations like Manager or Managing Director but you will see long term growth in your people and organization when you start leading them instead of managing them.
As a Leader, you envision the personal development of your people leading to development of your organization, so you profess for a work environment for your people which gives them freedom to express and grow personally.
A person grows when he feels that his contribution to the growth of the organization is as significant as the contribution of the top most executive of the organization and that is possible when you allow your people to participate in significant decision-making processes.
When you start working as a Leader though your designation consists of ‘Manager’ term, you will be able to retain good and ambitious people for a long term resulting in consistent growth of your organization.
Whether you work as Leader or as a Manager, you try to achieve the same organizational goals but in completely different ways.
As a Leader you try to grow the organization by growing your people, whereas as a Manager, you try to grow the organization by growing yourself.
Hence, we can define Leadership as a trait which is to guide the team members towards a goal by making them realize the importance of achieving the goal and by enriching them with the knowledge and skills that are required for them to make their personal and professional choices related to achieving the goal.
The returns for displaying leadership qualities are huge and long-term.
Take the example of Mr. Ratan Tata who is the Chairman Emeritus of The Tata Group Companies.
He did not step back to do justice to one of his partner companies called NTT Docomo, a Japanese telecom company.
He stood for what was morally right though the Chief Executive Officer Mr. Cyrus Mistry had an easy legal way to pay less to NTT Docomo after the split.
Though this step put Mr. Ratan Tata at odds with Mr. Cyrus and what followed was a long legal battle between the two after the ouster of Mr. Cyrus Mistry from the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Tata Group Companies, Mr. Ratan Tata stood his ground to pay what was committed to Docomo and showed it to the whole world that he is committed to maintain the brand of Tata Group Companies as a symbol of trust and justice for all its stakeholders.
This quality of Mr. Ratan Tata which is to stand for justice even if it puts you at odds with your own people, is it not a great leadership quality for a Head of the team or someone who aspires to be so?!
The entire episode of the legal battle between Mr. Ratan Tata and Mr. Cyrus Mistry who accused Mr. Tata to be an Autocrat, only contributed to the increase in the immense trust and respect of people towards Mr. Ratan Tata.
If you do not find anyone in real who displays great Leadership qualities, then watch videos or read books related to the great leaders like Mr. Rata Tata, you will get your Leadership lessons from these great leaders and will find your way out which gets well accepted and respected by your people in order to achieve a common goal.
Do not get engrossed with the concepts of leadership styles like whether you are a Democratic Leader or an Autocratic Leader.
When you stand at odds with someone who you think is doing something unethical, then he will certainly term you as an Autocratic Leader.
Being a Democratic Leader also does not mean that you let your people do whatever they like. Being a Democratic Leader means you empower your people to take decisions and do things which are good for their own interest and also for the interest of your organization.
You need not be born with Leadership qualities or you might not have got any opportunities to display your Leadership qualities and skills in a substantial part of your life but you can acquire Leadership qualities by following other great Leaders like Mr. Ratan Tata or Mahatma Gandhi virtually through videos and books, in case you do not find any inspiring leader in your vicinity.
The lessons that these great leaders like Mr. Ratan Tata and Mahatma Gandhi have given through their personal and professional journeys, can inspire anyone in this world to develop the Leadership qualities.
Mahatma Gandhi who is regarded as one of the greatest Leaders of Indian freedom movement, made the personal decision to denounce wearing impressive attire because he led people who were in deep poverty and were unable to secure daily meals for their families.
Mahatma Gandhi by denouncing impressive attire gave this great lesson to his people that ‘You can achieve great things with great determination, even if you have the most modest means’.
You can check for your own Leadership qualities by analyzing your own day-to-day personal and professional decisions and actions.
When you find that your decisions and actions reflect your caring attitude towards your people, then you can be hundred percent sure that you have Leadership qualities and also have Leadership skills because caring for your people is the minimum expectation that the people have from their Leader.
Leadership qualities and skills start from the basic characteristic of caring for your people and continue through the endless and tireless pursuit of human spirit to make this world a better place for everyone. This endless and tireless pursuit of human spirit is the reason because of which the past few decades since ‘World War II’ could give rise to a more prosperous and more peaceful world. And this endless and tireless pursuit of human spirit continues at every leadership level to make this world a better place for everyone.
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