Are You A Leader or A Manager?

1. If you constantly focus on organizational and process driven improvements you are probably a manager.

2. If you would rather focus on improving people who will improve the processes to make your organization better, you are probably a leader.

3. If you succumb easily to higher authority rather than providing thoughtful and intelligent counter arguments you are probably a manager.

4. If you respectfully challenge the status quo and seek to improve not only business productivity but also the wants and needs of people you are probably a leader.

5. If you are a different person depending on the people you are with, you are probably a manager.

6. If people try to emulate your personality, and act differently than they normally would around you, then you are probably a leader.

7. If you would rather make a decision that may make you look good at the cost of potentially hurting someone else in your organization, you are probably a manager.

8. If you would rather take risks and accept personal responsibility if things go badly rather than see a colleague take the fall, you are probably a leader.

9. If you are stuck in the “way we’ve always done it” mentality, you are probably a manager.

10. If you seek continuous organizational improvement and disregard the potential risk of your own career if things fail, you are probably a leader.

11. If you find yourself asking others how they would act in certain situations more often than charging with your own ideas, you are probably a manager.

12. If you find people come to you for advice, ideas, and personal help, and seek these things hoping for an “unbiased” opinion regarding things outside of the workplace, you are probably a
leader.

13. If you would rather tell your boss that someone below you must have screwed up, you are probably a manager.

14. If you would rather tell your boss that you have personally failed and plan to “rethink” the way you have done things in order to help those below you, then you are probably a leader.

15. If you seek sustainment and reactionary type activities rather than development and proactive type activities, you are probably a manager.

16. If you view work as much more than just a “job,” you are probably a leader.

17. If you let undue emotion and stress encapsulate and interfere with your job, you are probably a manager.

18. If you shake things off fairly easily and manage stress and uncertainty behind closed doors, you are probably a leader.

19. If you think you know how to lead people and believe you have a “system” to do so, you are probably a manager.

20. If you continue to develop the way you manage and to develop the way you lead and you realize that different things make different people tick, you are probably a leader.

21. If you view change as a hindrance to getting work done, you are probably a manager.

22. If you view change as a natural organizational process and embrace uncertainty, you are probably a leader.

23. If you punch the clock everyday and constantly check your watch, you are probably a manager.

24. If you would rather send your people home for the night and have to personally stay and finish leftover work, you are probably a leader.

25. If you are very worried about your job, you are probably a manager.

26. If you view your current job as the exact job you are supposed to be doing and seek to learn from your mistakes, you are probably a leader.

I’m sure there are many others that should be added to this list. Let me know if you have other ideas for this list!