Three Main Differences Between a Boss and a Leader

[jisansorkar12]

Who is in charge of you: the boss or the leader? And if you yourself manage a team, who are you: the leader or the boss?

So, what's the difference between just being a boss and a real leader? Online publication columnistMarkerPaul Zhao, an AI entrepreneur, asked himself this question and came to the following conclusions.

Doing things right vs doing the right things
What's the difference? A huge one! The boss is concerned that subordinates vietnam whatsapp list comply with established norms and rules, and do their job accurately. A weekly report? It's better to prepare it on time, in accordance with the format, reflect all the metrics in it, not forget or mix anything up, otherwise you'll get into trouble. Also be prepared to answer a couple of questions that are at the top of the list.

Average bosses don't want to make waves, so they want to be sure that everything is going according to plan. This doesn't mean that the boss is wrong. It just means that he or she is trying to avoid any risky actions, a risk-minimization strategy. Not bad quality, but not very inspiring.

Leaders do the right thing, even if it means breaking the rules. If you're launching a new product, there's no point in doing a weekly business report, and a leader won't force you to do it just because it's the right thing to do.

Leaders who focus on doing the right thing encourage a conscious approach to why a task should be done rather than simply following orders from above. In their view, it is more important to complete a task that will bring real value than to spend time on something just to check off a checklist .

Quantity vs. quality
Managers prefer quantitative and easily measurable indicators. They are often simply obsessed with numbers that express individual targets. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this approach, and in fact, the ability to understand such indicators as revenue, income, cost of attracting a client, etc., is a necessary professional skill of a manager in most cases.

But those managers who are too fixated on numbers often lose sight of the big picture.

For example, I once worked with a product manager who intentionally and unjustifiably lowered prices to increase install metrics for a new brand. His reasoning was, “That’s okay. Let’s get volume first, and then worry about profit!” But sometimes, even volume can’t save your business.

His actions were an example of managerial myopia, because the price cuts hit the business in four ways:

1. Attracted a segment of the audience that was attracted by the low price, but did not even think about using the software in the future.
2. Reduced the consumer value of the product.
3. Provoked a price war with competitors.
4. It was too low a price, the economics didn't "work" even at scale.
It's no wonder the product failed. The efforts of an entire team that developed great software went down the drain because of one incompetent manager.

Leaders focus on the long term and on creating product value, i.e. on the qualitative components. At the same time, they do not lose sight of the importance of quantitative characteristics and key metrics. True leaders always think about how to achieve the highest possible position in the market or minimize costs. Based on this, they can look for and find a variety of ways to solve a problem, including allowing costs to increase in the short term if this leads to a significant reduction in them in the future.