I always feel like a real loser when a motivational speaker comes into class and talks about "Leadership". She basically says that bossy students (AKA leaders) are great people and you should love them because they are the best . She is probably right, but I have never liked bossy people (especially athletic, privileged, attractive, intelligent, popular bossy people). I always thought quiet people can lead, as long as they are in a position of power and they know what to do. I didn't know leadership meant being rude and controlling. I don't want this to turn into a rant/biased argument so I'll stop here
I also don't want to overgeneralize, there are millions of exceptions.
What is your idea of leadership, and the perfect leader?
I've worked short-term in many places, had a lot of managers. What I consider to be good leadership is as follows:
- the person must be
dedicated to their job primarily. A manager I once worked with made a big point that she considered working as just for squares. She pretended she was being cute when she forgot regular events on the work calendar. It was ridiculous.
- the person must be
impartial. Wanting a social life as well is fine, but I've worked with managers who just wanted to have fun with their favourite members of the team and it doesn't work, not when the time comes that they need to be even-handed.
- the manager must be
friendly and approachable. A volcanic boss is not fun and ends up being told less, in my experience.
- the person must
keep a distance from the team. Although it's important that the manager is friendly and approachable, it's always healthier if they occasionally remind us all that they're not one of us at all and actually in charge.
- they must
value the team and each individual's strengths and weaknesses, and adjust the distribution of work accordingly.
- they must be secure enough in themselves to be happy to
train people. Keeping team members in the dark about things just so that the manager appears to be the only one who knows what they're doing reeks of insecurity.
- they must need to
be able to take a break. The boss who can't stop driving themselves, and their team, aren't nice people to work for.
- they must understand, and work according to, the concept of
returning to the average. This means that a person will get through an average amount of work per week, and if they do less than average one week, they'll probably improve the next, so what's the point in disciplining them for it too quickly? If someone does well one week, they'll probably do less well (return to their average) the following week, but that doesn't mean there's any harm in praising them for their good output. So long as it is done selectively, praising people is better than putting them down, so a boss who isn't unduly critical is good for me.
That's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure there are more. As far as I'm concerned, good looks, athleticism and bossiness don't necessarily come into it. Me, I'm a manager and therefore do a lot of leading, but I'm quiet, a bit nerdy and just get on with my work. I've got a lot of the techniques down pat, but am not a bright, sunny bastard for it.
