Dear Friends
I am sure you have read and will keep reading so much on this topic. The thing is being a leaders or a manager is often not a natural role. In your career you will go through the normal succession and you will probably be a great specialist in your field of choice. At the cross road as you move up the corporate ladder you might me offered a management role. Will you be a good manager and what is the difference between Specialist, Manager and Leader?
I have been a retailer for 30 years and to be honest you have to apply your mind and sometimes intentionally change your behavior to be a good manager or leader. You might be familiar with ‘Insights’. The personality colours Blue, Green, Yellow and Red. The short of Insights is that you have default colours but you might have to dial up other colours in different roles or situations from day to day.
My personality years ago was blue / red, Blue as I love numbers and Red as I get the job done no matter what. Green is the People side and Yellow your creative side. In life there has to be a balance. I under-indexed on Yellow and Green very badly and this impacted my performance and my ability to manage or lead teams. I was forced to dial up my Green, listen to people and use all my skills to assess the situation and make a decision.
The bottom line is you manage things (projects and stock) you lead people. You were told as kid to lead by example, that applies in everything we do. At home or at work, you have to roll up your sleeves and help. By doing this you earn respect as you don’t receive respect when you get appointed. Respect is earned through leading by example. This depiction is brilliant as it encapsulates exactly what I have just said.
‘a Boss has the title, a Leader has the People’ – Simon Sinek
Recent Comments