OA Chronicles: The Bee and The Lion

It was just like one of the ordinary Saturdays for our Masters class, only that it’s the first class of the new year. And almost all of us were late (chuckles). I don’t know if it made the class nervous about how Pareng Randy will react to our ‘lateness’, but all of us were so quiet and ready to listen to the reporter as we entered the room. Less expected, Pareng Randy just treated us like professionals letting us realize our own mistakes. And so the sharing started and was presented by one of my classmates that I idolized, Dustin Ramirez (parang artista lang ang name!).

 “Again?”, I thought, when I saw that we will be repeating the topic about managers and leaders. I really thought in that moment that I have already full understood the difference between a leader and a manager. I even have chosen what I am as an instructor. But I was wrong. There are far much more considerations to make for us to say if someone is a leader or a manager.

And here’s the story about the bee and the lion. It’s not actually a story but it’s how Dustin explained to us the difference of a manager and a leader. The bee as a manager and the lion as a leader. I even thought that it was a mismatch and got confused again of what a leader or a manager is. There were some categories presented to fully understand the differences. First, the attitude toward goals. Managers take impersonal and passive outlook. Goals arise out of necessities and not out of desires. Leaders, on the other hand, take personal and active outlook. He changes how people think about what's  desirable and possible. Next, is the conceptions of work. Managers negotiate and coerce, trying to balance opposing views. Leaders take fresh approaches to problems and are risk takers. Another category is the relationship to others. Managers prefer working with people with minimum emotional attachment while leaders are attracted to ideas and describes subordinates with emotionally rich adjectives. And another is the sense of self. Managers continue what is already strong in the company and feels part of the organization. The leaders comes from struggles to profoundly alter human and economic relationships and feel separate from the organization. To sum it up, managers impose rules and orderliness and leaders impose influence.

There were still a lot of arguments and discussions that happened. But as my classmates were arguing and discussing about it, I was already thinking that being a leader or a manager depends on the environment or organization you belong. I say that as an instructor, we are managers because we follow rules and we continue what is already strong in the organization. But if you belong to an industrial company, its important to be a leader, someone who is a risk taker and is open to fresh approaches. Can all of us be managers? NO. Can all of us be leaders? YES! Can we be both??? (grin).