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Recovering backpacker, Cornwallite at heart, political enthusiast, catalyst, writer, husband, father, community volunteer, unabashedly proud Canadian. Every hyperlink connects to something related directly or thematically to that which is highlighted.

Wednesday 30 July 2014

Boss vs Leader


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I spend a lot of time on this topic, and for good reason.  

Bosses are great at bullying people to get a specific task done or making others feel like they're awesome or fearsome, whatever.  

The problem is, they don't solve problems; they punt them down the field, sweep them under the rug or even create them.

They think they're important, the Sheppard (or wolf) among the sheep and look down upon those who can't bloody their knuckles alongside them.  Only they can solve problems, and if a problem can't be solved by them, it can't be solved, period.

It's ego-feeding delusion.  Our society is on fire because of bosses, both literally and metaphorically; how much fuel gets spent, heat generated for how little light?

We stumble and fumble our way through supposedly intractable problems - poverty and war among them - that could be gone tomorrow if every boss on the planet were replaced with a leader.

Leaders don't believe in trickle-down economics or survival of the fittest any more than they do nanny-stateism or developing personality cults.  

Leaders are conduits; their focus lies beyond themselves and includes everyone.  They can be visionaries, but don't have to be, nor are all visionaries necessarily leaders.

Leaders are the stones in the pot, the catalysts, the social synapses.  Sacrifice isn't something they promote in others; it's something they live, daily, without even considering it such.

We don't have many leaders and are burdened by way too many bosses.

Which is why we keep cycling back to the same damned problems time and again.

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