Episode 67: 5 Differences Between Bosses and Leaders
I was out in public one day a long time ago and ran into one of the paraprofessionals who worked within my department and she introduced me to her husband as her boss. Now, I was probably 10-15 years younger than her and I hadn’t been teaching for very long when this happened so it hit me weird…Me? A boss?
That’s not something that I ever thought I would be called when I was growing up and went to college. I never envisioned myself as someone’s boss because I didn’t go to college to be a boss.
In fact, that word…boss…has a bit of a negative connotation for me because growing up I would always hear things like “Don’t be so bossy” or “ That girl in your class just bosses everyone else around.” I have even said it to my own daughters…don’t be bossy to your sister or don’t boss your friends around.
When you use the word boss as a noun…it doesn’t sound so bad. It means a person who is in charge of a worker, a group, or an organization. So by definition, I guess I am the boss. I make their schedules. I write their lesson plans. I complete their evaluations. They report to me if they are sick…so it makes sense that they refer to me as their boss.
But as a verb, to boss means:
So quite literally “to boss” means to tell employees what to do in order to control them.
These two definitions butted heads within my brain for quite a while and I spent many years trying to work out my role within our department. And it became evident throughout the years that a boss is not something I wanted to be. I wanted to work on the front lines with my staff. I wanted to build a team culture and I wanted to be seen as a leader instead of a boss.
So today…I want to dig into this a little deeper and explain the differences between the two and hopefully give you some good information on what you can do to become a good leader for your staff.
These 5 differences seem simple enough, but simple does not always mean easy. True leaders make a commitment to assess their management styles, understand these key differences and then make a concerted effort to put these good leadership characteristics into action.
So when making that commitment to becoming a leader versus being a boss, the one thing that I have done above anything else is to learn. I am and always will be a lifelong learner and self-improvement is one of my top priorities when it comes to learning things. I guess I just feel like if I’m not open to learning and growing then how can I expect my staff and the teachers I mentor to do the same.
Here are just 3 of the books I have read to help me become a better leader (affiliate links)
Shifting the Monkey: The Art of Protecting Good People From Liars, Criers, and Other Slackers (A book on school leadership and teacher performance)
