Understanding Leadership

"Managers have employees, leaders have followers." - Workplace 2000

Although all skills are learnable, it is not easy to be a good leader. Good leaders are followed chiefly because people trust and respect them, rather than the skills they possess.

Management skills are important but leadership relies more on qualities such as integrity, honesty, humility, courage, commitment, sincerity, passion, confidence, positivity, wisdom, determination, compassion and sensitivity.

I find the following passage very thought provoking:

Leadership has to do with direction. Management has to do with the speed, coordination and logistics in going in that direction. The Workers are chopping their way through the jungle. The Managers are coordinating, making sure the tools are sharp, etc. The Leaders climb a tree and shout Wrong jungle!! The Managers shout back Be quiet! We're making progress!

Below are some quotes that can give us some hints of those behaviors of effective leadership.

"A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better." - Jim Rohn

"The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he/she wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it." - Theodore Roosevelt

"The level of morale is a good barometer of how each of your people is experiencing your leadership." - Danny Cox

"Every leader needs to look back once in awhile to make sure he has followers." - Kouzes and Posner

"Be enthusiastic as a leader. You can't light a fire with a wet match!"

"Managers are people who do things right; leaders are people who do the right thing." - Warren Bennis

"Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success, leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall." - Stephen Covey

"The most vital task of the leader is to motivate, inspire, empower and encourage the team's primary resource -- the unlimited, creative human potential to find better ways." - Dr. Lewis Losoncy

Skills alone do not make leaders - style and behavior do. To be a good leader means that you can inspire others to follow your example, willingly and cheerfully. What do you think? Do you agree? Do you have a great leader that you are following?

"Do not worry if others do not understand you.
Instead worry if you do not understand others." - Confucius

Photo 1 by tcd123usa taken from this source
Photo 2 by kool_skatkat taken from this source

Related posts:

• Boss versus Leader
• Setting a good example
• The Art of Leadership
• Be a Leader