How The Best Leaders Will Inspire and Guide, Not Boss Their Team Around!
Leadership is a behavioral choice. How you lead, and how you serve your team is up to you, the leader. It’s a choice you make each time you interact with your team.
“Leadership is messy.” ~Ahmed Sidky
In a recent podcast episode of Defining Moments of Leadership, we learn more about this human-centric approach to leadership from Dr. Agile himself, Ahmed Sidky.
How do leaders inspire and guide? Listen to the full episode here.
Leader vs Manager vs Boss
Not everyone understands what it takes to be a great leader. Some take to leadership by assuming the title, but not the work. Others confuse being bossy with leadership.
The best leaders will inspire and guide, the worst will boss their teams around until they fall apart, revolt or even breakdown.
Here are 3 ways leaders can become great leaders.
1 Building Relationships vs Building Systems
While systems play an important role in leadership, managers can set up systems. You do not need to be a leader to be good at systemizing the tasks you need your team to perform.
Instead of building systems, great leaders build relationships with their team members. Building relationships takes time, effort and can’t necessarily be measured with data. As Ahmed Sidky mentions in the podcast “untangling the human web is messy. It’s about people not systems.”
COOs are usually about the process, but once they realize it’s about the people, not just the systems, the investment in relationships will solve most of the problems.
2 Leadership vs Bossiness
The difference between leadership and management or bossiness is this:
“Leaders inspire and guide; management tells.”
There certainly is a negative connotation of “bossy.” Leaders are not always right. When they stay curious, ask questions, and have a genuine interest in the human side of the company they work for, magical things happen in their team. Bosses on the other hand, tell people what to do, what to think, how to act. Bosses do not leave room for spontaneity, dialogue or team member empowerment. They just want to get the job done by telling someone what to do, how to do it, and when.
While leaders are bosses and most bosses have core leadership skills, not all bosses are leaders. And know this: Bossiness is not a leadership trait.
3 Practicing vs Knowing
Great leaders invest time in learning new leadership skills. Awesome leaders take time to practice their skills and take time to build relationships (as mentioned earlier).
The best leaders understand that leadership is a lifelong journey that never ends. Time and effort to gain new skills is great, but the stellar, iconic leader will apply the intentional effort to put these new skills into action!
Leaders Embrace Professional Development
No matter where you are on your journey to leadership, “great” steps include professional development with opportunities that will enhance your competency, not just get you there faster.
At TeamCatapult we hold this value that leaders can expand their leadership range.
Will you do that by intent or practice or hap-in-stance?
I invite you to take an intentional step and begin imagining how this can happen within the context of a cohort of like-minded leaders. Coaching Agility from Within Cohort is the single-best step you can take. Don’t take our word for it. Listen to the video of others, who like you, wanted to become the best leader they could imagine.
The cohort is designed for those eager, like you, to become the leader who inspires, motivates and empowers high-performing Agile teams. To facilitate, train, coach and mentor teams with confidence that is developed through engaging practice with your fellow cohort members.
We start the next cohort in May. Transformative. Empowered. Leadership. Starts here.
Or, if you prefer, hop on a 15-minute call with us.
