In this piece, the first part will deal with defining the characteristics and behavior of those managers, who assume and love to call themselves Boss. The second part will draw upon some comparison but will mostly highlight of what mettle is required to transition from being a mere manager (Boss) to being a leader.
In this piece, the first part will deal with defining the characteristics and behavior of those managers, who assume and love to call themselves Boss. The second part will draw upon some comparison but will mostly highlight of what mettle is required to transition from being a mere manager (Boss) to being a leader.
My initial years of work life were in Abu Dhabi, where the only available entertainment was watching movies from the neighboring country. While conducting an interview, a candidate for a very senior position a few years back, I was getting internally worked up, by the constant and continuous form of address, the candidate had reserved for me, that day. To every reply, the prefix was “Boss, you know…”, “Boss, my experience….” I couldn’t tell him that the word ‘Boss’, because of its excessive usage in the films, conjures in me an image of a tall, dark person, dressed in a white suit, with equally horrendous looking white shoes, a red shirt with a black tie and supporting flashy sunglasses, dark enough in shade to match the complexion, who is informed in the very first shot of the movie by one of his cohorts, “Boss, launch loaded with gold from Dubai has anchored”! That’s my image of a boss; thanks to my Abu Dhabi days. I got to see one, many years later in Hongkong, who fitted the above description, both in style and looks, and was the country manager of our S. Korean operations. He was quickly christened by me and other friends as “Boss---yes Boss”.
Regardless of the type of organization or even the general working environment, we all experience the “Boss”. For a fuller understanding of what such type represents, I am giving a few generalized statements that we get to hear in the office corridors:
- I am the Boss
- I have a view. All of you must conform to my views.
0- There is no reason for you to "think" - ‘that’s my job’.
-Unreasonablity is my unique strength. However, I expect reasonable responses.
- Anger management is meant for you menials. I can recommend you to attend some good programme(s) on the subject. This is said with a frown.
- I have full control over my anger and reactions (It is undone only a dozen times during any day, devastatingly it leaves behind in its wake, a few uprooted trees (read colleagues) whose trunks may have been considered to be of Oak.
- I don’t add value, I exact value from others.
- My job is to be manipulative for achieving my ends. You should care for me, I will not. I can hurt you, but you cannot.
- You have to trust me. I don’t trust anyone.
- You must achieve goals for me, don’t expect help.
- I sow the seeds, you do the toil and tilling, but the harvest, I will reap.
- I may and can infuse in your professional blood stream negativity but I expect each of you to deliver positive results.
- In the darkness of this organization, I am the only “light” that is supposed to shine and finally;
- Never forget you have a choice - my way or the highway.
This is not an exhaustive list, but mere mouthwatering sprinkle's of the qualities a boss may demonstrate or possess. The ones supported by impolite words aren't part of this list.
In contrast, leadership qualities a manager must possess should include; that he/she is forward looking, adaptable, adept in technical knowledge and skills. In disposition they are approachable. Many moons back, the economic intelligence Unit (EIU) in a study it conducted, had made following observations: 34 percent ability to motivate staff; 34 percent ability to work in different cultures and 32 percent ability to facilitate changes, goes to make up a Leader. In a continuous changing economic environment nobody who thinks of himself/herself as a leader can think the same, act the same, as done in the past. Everything must change to adapt to new circumstances. A boss conforms. Leaders adapt. Leaders alter courses. They do not remain static. They are proactive and agile to opportunities.
George Will, a known political columnist said, “the future has a way of arriving unannounced”. Leaders spend less time on now and today. They look far beyond. And whilst they do, they keep sharpening their thinking and amend actions to meet changing demands of situations, as they arise. They refuse to be surprised by events. They tend to control and manage events.
A “Boss” is always full of himself where arrogance will take him/her to corporate ruins. The leader remains mindful that he has in him the required levels of humility that permits him to recognize his own weaknesses of skill, talent and sometimes even judgment. Those managers who have the capacity to take criticism from their colleagues for actions taken; those managers who do not indulge in unexpected reprisals for the dissenters and those who have the magnanimity to recognize publicly their misjudgments, go to make up the best leaders of people.
In an address to a class of seniors in 1954 at Princeton University on the subject of “Educated Citizen”, Adlai Stevenson, the politician had this to say: “what a man knows at fifty that he did not at twenty is, for the most part incommunicable… what he knows at fifty that he did not know at twenty boils down to something like this. The knowledge he has acquired with is not the knowledge of formulas or forms of words, but by touch , sight, sound, victories, failures, sleeplessness, devotion, love ---- the human experiences and emotions of earth and of oneself and other men; and perhaps , too a little faith, and a little reverence for things you cannot see.”
Going through Adlai’s speech, I was gripped with introspection of my career; having obtained first class degree, I possibly put to use only about 20 percent of the knowledge acquired, in my work; but the 80 percent constituted training at school of developing attitude, helped me most in acquiring new set of knowledge, as I progressed from one assignment to another, from one geographic location to another and from one culture of the west to the culture of the Orient. I concluded the self-analysis, with a view that leadership is mostly about peoples skill; very little to do with technicalities; but this certainly is not to suggest to my readers, that technical proficiency for any leadership is not a requirement. It is, but not absolutely.
Bosses crumble under pressure. They normally lack tenacity. Because they are made of brittle material of insecurities of all sorts, they fall apart at the slightest challenge. I have seen several managers who just succumbed to circumstances. They possessed no leadership skill to fight back. Leaders like, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was paralysed from waist downwards, teach us perseverance and the resolute presence of the “will to never give up”. He fought against his rebellious body and gained control over it. During the Presidency, in response to how he was coping with health issues, he smilingly replied: “If you spent two years in bed trying to wiggle your big toe, anything would seem easy”
Leaders take responsibility. In failure they do not look for scapegoats. Lincoln, a leader par excellence, with his amazing humility, self-awareness, discipline, empathy was able to bring to table the prideful, quarrelsome, intolerant and often jealous of each other, politicians for taking tough national decisions. The decision would be of all, but he would make known the responsibility will remain his (IK can take prompt from Lincoln's life). Lincoln wasn’t malicious. “I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man’s bosom”, he once remarked. That's a Leader.
Bosses are men with towering ego, with a heart and mind that rests in an inferno. They all nurture without full understanding the many “Brutus’s” within their own rank and file. They undo themselves by circumferencing themselves with sycophants. The binoculars, sycophants lend to their bosses shows, what the boss wishes to see…and that usually is far from reality. If you wish to test my claim, visit our President’s house and stand in the portico… not only you can actually look down upon the nation, but also cannot see clearly which country you are in… I have tested my claim more than once. The occupant cannot be blamed because it is purpose built; purpose being to make sure that the occupant must not know the reality. In organization, the sycophants build this imaginary castle and imprison the manager/CEO, inside it.
The facial hallmark of a boss is ‘mirth’ and of a leader, “cheerfulness”. With their face towards sunshine, they get to see no shadows, and those thinking contrarily, find only darkness because of this inherent weakness of not seeing light. All those little differences, are differences that make the difference.
The writer is a senior banker and freelance columnist
