Leaders Need Leaders

There are many days as a manager I feel like I'm a good manager, but a terrible leader. Managing to me is making sure the work gets done. Does everyone know their tasks and accomplish them? Is the paperwork done, the reports written and the performance evaluated? If I'm being honest it isn't that hard to be a manager. But leadership is so much more difficult. Leadership is inspiring people to work together to achieve a common goal. It is easy to have a goal, but a common goal? Too many people have their own goals or they really just don't care, they just want to do their job and collect their paycheck. That is where leadership comes in. It is one thing to know what the goal is, but to support it, care about it and do what is needed to help achieve the goal? It is so much harder. It is why I think there are a lot of people in management positions that aren't very good leaders. All managers aren't leaders, but you don't have to be a manager to be a leader. Anyone can be a leader. Everyone should be a leader. Work to find those common goals and do whatever you can to support them. If you don't agree with what the goal is, even if you never say anything you are holding back the team because you won't be putting everything into achieving it. 

The greatest teams not only have great leadership at the top, they have great leadership from multiple areas on the team. Whatever your role is, be a leader, your manager will appreciate it.

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