Leadership (Part I)

Thu, 8 Mar 2012
2 min read
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While the principles of leadership have interested me since I was young, I’ve been thinking more about these principles in recent months.

That plus this picture I recently saw floating around on Facebook comparing the difference between a boss and a leader inspired me to write about this topic.

The content of the visual is more or less spot on, but it’s also quite ugly. So I thought I’d create my own visual for posterity:

Difference between a boss and a leader.

For the less visually-inclined, the difference between a boss and a leader can be summarised as thus:

  1. A boss drives employees, whereas a leader coaches them.
  2. A boss depends on authority, whereas a leader utilises goodwill to get things done.
  3. A boss evokes fear, whereas a leader generates enthusiasm.
  4. A boss says “I”, whereas a leader says “We”.
  5. A boss merely places the blame on someone when there’s a breakdown; a leader fixes the breakdown to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
  6. A boss knows how it’s done but a leader shows how it’s done.
  7. A boss uses people but a leader develops people.
  8. A boss takes credit whereas a leader gives credit where it’s due.
  9. A boss commands; a leader asks (difference is in the tone of instruction).
  10. A boss says “Go” but a leader says “Let’s go”.

Is this true for you?

In any case, come back again tomorrow for part 2.

Moves like Jaggers.

Thu, 8 Dec 2011
2 min read
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Okay, last one, I promise – and then I’ll stop flogging this dead horse:

I got the moves like Jaggers

Context here:

I embrace this opportunity of remarking that [Mr. Jaggers] washed his clients off, as if he were a surgeon or a dentist. He had a closet in his room, fitted up for the purpose, which smelt of the scented soap like a perfumer’s shop. It had an usually large jack-towel on a roller inside the door, and he would wash his hands, wipe them and dry them all over this towel, whenever he came in from a police court or dismissed a client from his room. When I and my friends repaired to him at six o’clock the next day, he seemed to have been engaged on a case of a darker complexion than usual, for, we found him with his head butted into this closet, not only washing his hands, but laving his face and gargling his throat. And even when he had done all that, and had gone all round the jack-towel, he took out his penknife and scraped the case out of his nails before he put his coat on.

— Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Even more information here, in case you didn’t understand the symbolism.