Leadership is not about forcing people or just giving orders to them. Leadership is about helping people to overcome problems rather than simply issuing orders. If you are merely controlling people and giving orders, you are a boss, not a leader.
One of my bosses once asked me to fix a production issue. I said, “Yes, we are working on it.” Actually, the issue was occurring intermittently on the production server. It was not a normal issue. Every environment like development, QA, staging, and even production was working fine. It was only happening in a specific scenario. In such a situation, it was very hard to commit to when we could fix it.
If you know where and what the problem is, you can fix it immediately or commit to how much time it will take. But if you don’t know what the problem is or how much time it will take, it’s very hard to commit. Yes, you can say, “I can fix it, but I can’t commit to how much time it will take.” I politely asked him, “Sir, we are trying our best, and we are giving our best, but still, we can’t commit because we don’t know exactly what and where the problem is.”
He replied, “I don’t know; you have to fix the problem today. I have resolved this type of problem many times.” Then I asked him, “Please sit with us and help us to figure out the problem.” Instead of listening or helping, he got angry and said, “Why did I hire you then? I don’t need you.” It was a heated discussion with me, and I left for the day.
What do you understand from this incident?
These types of incidents are common in the corporate world on a daily basis. He behaved with me like a boss, not a leader. Obviously, you can’t expect these types of conversations from a leader. The corporate world is full of bosses, not leaders. In my 17 years of career journey, I have hardly found a leader. Your title does not decide that you are a leader. I have worked with various people with titles like VP, Directors, CTOs, CEOs, and Founders, but none of them were good leaders. Somewhere inside them, there was a boss. They were not full-fledged leaders. The people whom I understood to be good leaders later on I just found inside them a small boss.
If you are working as a developer, that does not mean you are not a leader. A fancy title does not decide whether you are a leader or a boss. It doesn’t matter whether you are working as a developer or a CEO. Leadership is not about titles, my friend. There are many people who have good leadership qualities but are not promoted or do not have titles. On the other hand, there are a lot of people with fancy titles but lack those qualities.
Now, you might ask me why they got promoted. You are right, my friend. That is called corporate politics.
For people who are not yet promoted but have enough abilities and capabilities, don’t be disheartened. Believe in yourself and take a leap of faith by leaving the organization. To make such a bold decision, you need courage, confidence, and good skills. If you have all these things, you can’t work like a slave in any organization. But if you are lacking any one of them, you will continue in that toxic environment.
Need any assistance or guidance? Don’t hesitate or connect with me if you think I can help you.