Some thoughts on leadership

I'm beginning to establish my management ethos. Over the past 2 years, I've gradually taken on more and more management-type responsibilities and to help me cope with it all, I've looked to some of the managers I've worked for and worked with for indirect advice on what makes a person a successful manager, to put it broadly. I've conciously observed these people in their day-to-day activites, how they make decisions, how they manage people, how they deal with politics. I've been trying to pick out traits that fit with the type of manager I want to be. One common trait that I have found is possessed by all the people I would define as "good" managers is that they are leaders as well. All the organisational behaiviour texts I've read and lectures I've been to were right! Genuine leadership is a trait required for effective management. This fits very well with my belief that organisations should be democratic, rather than autocratic.

A manager has been appointed based on defined criteria and usually by those further up the chain, whereas a leader has been informally nominated againt intangible criteria by the people they are leading. By the people they are leading. This really does appeal to my sense of democracy and fairness. It is so easy to feel the unfairness of organisational rank and rule as you see incompetant people appointed again and again to management positions while the true leaders are passed over. The concept of leadership over management appeals to me even further when I start to think about the traits and benefits I see as being part of leadership.

Leaders are popular. They have to be well-liked in order to be promoted by the people around them. They are trustworthy, consistant, honest, and fair. If they aren't, the people who considered them a leader will fall away for lack of trust. I am really attracted to those particular four qualities, both in the people around me and in myself. I know from past (and current) experience that I don't work well with people who act in opposition to these traits. I don't work well with unethical people.

Leaders can motivate people. your manager can come to you and tell you that you are going to have to work on a particularly big and difficult project, that it will involve a lot of work in areas you're not really confident in, and that you will have to work particulary hard in order to meet a deadline. Sounds like fun huh? If that same manager happens to be a leader that you trust and are inspired by, that same project becomes an opportunity to work with innovative technology on a really high-profile project, and expand your knowledge into a new area. You also trust that you will be recognised for your hard work once the project is finished. See how that works? That is what I see as leadership. And that is the type of manager I hope I am becoming.