Recently there was a write up by 7 News regarding an incident that was faced by a mum and her daughter who enjoyed going to a cafe each weekend for some quality time. It seems, that despite being regular customers, a server had deemed it appropriate to gift the pair with an indentifiable moniker for the purposes of tracking and billing. The identifier? The fam with the terrifiying kid. The fact that the server had even given such an indentifier was bad enough, but what saw them caught out was the fact that this was printed on the receipt that was handed to the customer. To add insult to injury, the server had also charged her too much, resulting in the pair leaving before their orders arrived.
Understandably, mum was very upset and immediately spoke to a staff member in charge. From there, she proceeded to post a copy of the receipt onto her Facebook account, calling out the business and the actions of the server.
As a business owner, how would you respond to the incident being plastered all over social media and your reputation attacked by an onslaught of angry current and potential patrons? When emotion kicks in, you may be tempted to immediately get on the defensive. But, how you handle adverse situations is how you can be differentiated as a leader or a boss.
Definitions
Boss (Noun): A person who is in charge or a worker or organisation
Leader (Noun): A person who leads or commands a worker or an organisation
There are many scholarly works surrounding leadership and its effects on business at both an operations and operational level. In practice, however, the one in charge is casually considered the ‘boss’, but did you know there is a difference between the two?
The Boss Theory
In broad terms, boss theory suggests that a boss is a person who rewards subordinates when they act in a manner that the person in command deems as favourable, and punishes them when they do not. The actions that are considered the good ones, vary from boss to boss and are rooted within the individuals personal values and assumptions.
Ultimately, a Boss is someone who gives orders and seeks control in an authoritative manner, and is generally not as concerned with achieving organisational goals.
Leadership Theory
Until recent times, scholars held the view that those who become leaders, do so because they are born with inherent traits and abilities that allow them to do so. Now, many scholars agree that despite born traits, most individuals can learn to become effective leaders. As a result, leadership now encompasses various schools of thought, leading to several theory developments to answer the how and why of leadership.
Thus, generally speaking, a Leader is someone who influences others, supports them and cheers them in order to achieve certain organisatiional goals.
Key Differences
When comparing a boss and a leader, there are key differences that help to distinguish one from the other. Keydiferences.com provides a comprehensive chart to illustrate the various differences between the two terms:
Source: Difference Between a Boss and Leader, 2017, Surbhi S https://keydifferences.com/difference-between-boss-and-leader.html
So, with this in mind, going back to our original example. When the customer that had been offended broaddcasted their issue on their social media account, the cafe in question could have responded in a manner of different ways. They could have openely shamed the employee who made the gross error in judgement in order to illicit a more favourable response from social media users, or they could take the road less travelled and accept responsibility for the mistake.
Surprisingly, the cafe opted for the second choice. FIrst, they responded directly to the complainant to advise that they were aware of the issue and then they posted their own response publicly, saying that they had made a mistake and then made an attempt to highlight what the mistake was and follow through with an appropriate course of action based on their intrinsic values, commitments and vision.
Even without much knowledge surrounding leadership theory, as a business owner, you decide the values of your business and choose what you project out to the world at large. As the saying goes, leaders can be bosses, but not all bosses can be leaders - and with a clear vision of how you want to handle situtations and interactions moving forward, you can inspire those around you to help you succeed and be a leader.
Need Help?
If you want to be a leader, but are unsure how to get there, why not schedule a free discovery session with us here at VV?
We also manage and maintain a special group connected to our Facebook page, Virtually Social. VS assists business owners with support and advice in many general areas, including bookkeeping, BAS, payroll, leadership, change management, HR, operations, digital marketing and more. It provides educational learning units as well as an exclusive helpline service for its members.