Something I dug into as a student of the altMBA was that management and leadership are two distinctly different things.
You can be a leader without being a manager, or a manager without being a leader.
You see, management is often:
- Hierarchical
- About titles, authority and status
- Inefficient
- Messy
- One to many
- About processes, not people
- Bestowed upon you like some kind of privilege
- People talking at each other and not listening to each other
- Presented in 700-page textbooks written in the 90s
Leadership, on the other hand, is often:
- Flat and can come from anywhere
- About taking action, ownership and creating change
- Efficient
- One on one
- Personal and human
- Relatable
- People creating space for others to talk to one another
- Represented in viral talks like this or best-selling books like this
Perhaps the most important distinction is that leadership is a choice. There’s nothing stopping us from viewing ourselves as leaders and starting to act as such. As Seth says “If you want to be a leader, go lead.”
PS. For bonus viewing, check out this video of my strangely animated eyebrows telling a similar story.