I am lucky enough to have a great mentor at work and she encouraged me to think about that and with her encouragement, I enrolled in the Leadership Certificate at Red Deer College. What a great idea! These courses have really opened my eyes up to the idea that leadership and management are different and that I don't have to be a “manager” and have a fancy title to be a good leader. People can lead from any role within an organization.
What do you think the difference between management and leadership is? Here are some ideas loosely based on a discussion in the book "the 360 Degree Leader" by John C. Maxwell:
Management is:
- A title given to someone
- A process that must be followed
- A formal chain of command
- A position where the rules/policies/guidelines are laid out
Leadership is:
- Something anyone can do, yet few people are good at
- A process which is different for everyone based on their personal situation
- Informal in nature
- Has to be practiced and worked on, although some have more “natural” talent
- Something that can take a long time to establish
This realization that management and leadership are different, was what they call an “ah-ha moment” for me! I don't think that I had ever seen management and leadership as separate things before. I used to think that the only way that I will ever grow is to get to the next level in my organization and become a manager; then I would learn how to be a leader. But based on this new information, I now know that I can work within the position that I have, which I love, to develop and use those leadership skills now, so that someday I will be prepared should I be lucky enough to have the chance to be a manager.
In this blog, I am going to be posting some updates on topics from the leadership certificate courses as well as interesting pieces from leadership books, and I am going to try and implement some of these lessons to my workplace and see how they fit “the real world”.
I hope you enjoy! Stay tuned…
