When it comes to any team - a group of students at the university or employees in the workplace, there is always a person appointed to the role of leader. It can be a headman, a senior manager, one who is responsible for everyone and sets the direction for the process. This person is a formal leader, that is, officially endowed with power. But is such a leader always real - not to those who should lead, but to those whom they will follow with pleasure? How is an informal leader defined, what qualities does he have? Let's talk about this in this article.
Leadership and Organization
Think of yourself as a child. Playing with peers on the street, you intuitively knew who was the initiator of your entertainment and pranks. This personality might not be the brightest among other children, but nonetheless everyone in the company realized that it was he who was the ideological inspirer and organizer, and in some way tried to imitate him. This is an example of who the informal leader is - a person who does not need nominal ranks, but who is able to successfully organize, direct and complete the process, and who knows and skillfully uses the qualities of other team members.
Nominal and real management
Since adolescence, people are faced with another type of leadership - nominal. The informal leader in the group does not require election, the team intuitively knows and feels that this person will lead everyone. A formal leader is elected. In school and higher educational institutions, this is the headman - the student, who is the link between the teaching staff and students. In a work collective — a group of workers who are equal in rank, the manager also most often chooses a “senior” who sets the vector of work and provides the opportunity for feedback on the labor process. What qualities should an official leader have and why most often a formal and informal leader cannot be represented by the same person?
The Difference Between Nominal and Real Leadership
In order to understand why real leaders infrequently find themselves in leadership positions, it is necessary to understand what qualities are valued by those who appoint a formal team leader. So, first of all, this is responsibility and punctuality - the formal organizer must clearly, “in form and on time” bear an answer to the bosses about work, labor results. This person is often a careerist and does not hide it, and his bosses, seeing such ambitiousness, promote him along the career ladder and use this desire in his interests. A formal leader may not be a person of the highest moral principles - in pursuit of his own goals, he sometimes has to inform the official authorities about the actions of his colleagues, to report on what is happening inside the team. In addition, a formal leader, taking advantage of his position, can demonstrate his advantage in status over colleagues. What qualities does an informal leader have?
What are the features of a real leader?
It is best to imagine an informal leader, focusing on the characteristics of the ringleader in the children's team. Children behave much more naturally than adults, since they are not yet bound by any obligations. For example, a person may possess outstanding leadership qualities, but suppress them because of circumstances (financial or otherwise). Children do not chase for anything, they just play for fun.
Remember who led your "gang" when you were a child, playing with peers? This person might not have a clear physical advantage, but he had his own inner core. The leader does not adapt to anyone, he is on his own, and only follows his own convictions. This type of people never mimics the behavior of others, and no matter how much he likes them, he will not imitate. Its value lies in naturalness. The leader has his own clear system of values, which will not change situationally. He gains trust because of his consistency and consistency in decisions.
The informal leader also does not need followers; he will not form a circle of imitators around himself. He offers ideas, but if the team does not consider it necessary to implement them, then he will not be humiliated to requests. Remember your childhood: it is unlikely that the leader of your company persuaded everyone to play a game. If he offered something, but the other guys refused, he just changed the idea.
Adult leadership
A holistic leader in childhood may cease to be such, having matured. Since we live in society, we have to adapt to the circumstances, and sometimes get "on the throat" of our own desires. However, a person with pronounced leadership qualities will not cease to possess them, even if the situation develops against him. Meanwhile, the roles of the formal and real leaders are so different that they rarely intersect. A real leader in a leadership position is completely disadvantageous to the boss. Such a person will not always obey instructions, he is unlikely to report on his comrades, and he will not succeed in playing “his” for both the boss and colleagues.
Or imagine that the head of the group at the school appointed an informal leader. If the opportunity arises to miss lectures, of course, the informal leader will want to use it, since he is an ideological organizer and is looking for the most effective ways to spend time for himself and the team. But for the headman, such a decision is not correct, since it harms the educational process.
So is there an answer to the question: “What will be the leader - an informal leader?”. For his comrades and colleagues, perhaps he would become the best and most desirable manager, but this cannot be said for the higher authorities and the production process. It is for this reason that a wise boss will not choose a true leader with his “right hand”, but will choose a candidate for other important qualities.
When an informal leader in a team is a hindrance
You need to understand that a true leader is most often a revolutionary in the soul. He loves freedom, authority is alien to him, he has no idols. It does not matter what he does and what position he works in - first of all, he will listen to his inner voice, and not to the needs of the work process. These qualities can play him an unkind service. Imagine that there is a person in the team who constantly encourages his comrades (and quite successfully) to skip couples, to leave work earlier, to arrange “sabantui”. If this person is valuable as an employee, then the authorities should give him a separate role in the organization. For example, to give such powers so that it would be unprofitable for him to disrupt the process of work or study. Then the rebel will be "curbed" and will be able to manifest itself in other areas.
The role of the informal leader
Why is an informal organization leader needed? This question is rather naive, because it is this person who is the main inspirer and example for others. This is neither bad nor good - the roles are just distributed. Without an informal leader, there will not be something indispensable in the team, although it is impossible to feel financially. Without such “glue”, members of the organization will feel fragmented, not connected in any way by collective units. When there is no informal leader in a group, group members do not have a common motion vector. If it comes to work, then without a real leader staff turnover is often observed, people easily leave their jobs in case of even small problems. In contrast, the informal leader strengthens the team, people feel almost family. And sometimes they rush to work with no less pleasure than after home.