When I started my career, I had a clear vision, how things should be done. And if one day I should become a boss, I believed I knew how to deal with it. Years went by and something was missing. Like in a quotation above I had different assumptions, but they did not feel right. To make people listen to you and to keep them inspired is a tough task. All numerous articles on leadership as well as MBA /EMBA studies make a clear cut between a manager and a leader. And everyone finds now attractive to be a LEADER. Let us be honest. We quote Steve Jobs and we love Richard Branson. The recipes for leadership are multiple. Richard Branson made quite a bold statement during one of his speeches. No business school will teach you to make business. Get an education, if you are going to work for somebody else. In your own business you learn from your own mistakes. Luckily not all see it that way. I don't. But I respect his perseverance. We are blinded so much by the impressive revenue numbers and newest design products that we forget and forgive these many imperfections that our "leaders" have. They are genious in doing business, but how many personal qualities not related to business they have to be admired for?
On a webinar with a well know personal branding coach Malcolm Levene I have noticed one student’s comment to our discussion on tough decisions such as firing people and etc. It stated that leaders should not preoccupy with daily routine like that, they have MANAGERS to do these tasks. Is it so? Do you believe that you can become a perfect visionary/guru and take your company to a different level without having dealt with practical decisions of life? I think that is naive. I am sure, if you fire a person with the same ease, as you throw a piece of paper to the garbage can, you are a bad leader and not even a good manager, as you failed to manage your resources. I believe that personal branding coaches should pay more attention to genuine personal values and ongoing thirst for self education instead of teaching us how to CREATE our image using well know tricks. The image has to have some essence behind. You may oppose saying that they are not professors of ethics. Would they rather prefer to be called the masters of perfectly crafted masks fitting for every business occasion?
I loved the difference of becoming a leader that Jack Welsh mentioned on Linkedin. Before you become a leader, everything is about you. You want to be the best. But when you achieve your goal, everything is about the others; to keep people inspired, motivated and to grow them. I have learnt with years going by that being in charge is a huge responsibility. When you fire somebody for a reason or because of redundancies, it is an equally tough decision. In the first case you did not manage to inspire your employee for changes, in the second case you have to correct previous mistakes, although you might be not the one who did the mistake. But you are dealing with people’s life daily, not only the product, customers and suppliers. You have to have the mind that moves you and other people forward.
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