Throughout both the in-class components and optional lectures of PLA, I’ve had the opportunity to hear from and converse with many different leaders. Though they have all had different leadership styles, groups of people that they lead, and demands of their leadership, one thing that I feel each has reminded me of is the importance of being a leader, not a manager.
In my opinion, managing does often work well in the short term. A good manager keeps their team on track, helps set and achieve goals, and makes sure that the team is functioning at a high level. I think that those who manage are task-oriented and focused on meeting expectations, which is important in many ways. The difference between a manager and leader, in my opinion, is how they approach the people on their team.
I think that a manager leads to achieve specific goals. A true leader, however, leads not only to achieve goals and tasks, but also to help grow their team as individuals. You often hear internships or jobs using their “professional development opportunities” as a huge draw for potential new hires. They want new team members to know that they aren’t just going to be told what to do and how to do it; they will have opportunities to learn beyond the context of their specific tasks with skills or knowledge that can be applied throughout the rest of their career. I’ve been fortunate to have many bosses who have been good leaders, and have helped me grow as a person outside of just my role on the team. Those are the bosses that I have been most grateful and who have made the largest impression on me. That’s not to say that other bosses I’ve had have been bad at what they do; they just have been singularly focused on growing me in my position and not as a whole.
I don’t remember who said it or where I heard it (despite how hard I’ve tried because I really wanted to give them credit in this blog post!), but someone recently said in a groupme that I’m in that if a team fails when a leader leads, then they were just a manager. I’ve thought a lot about that recently, especially as I prepare to graduate and leave behind leadership positions that I have held throughout my time at Penn State. Being in PLA has taught me so much about being a true leader, and not just a manager of a team, that I feel confident that I am leaving the clubs and organizations that I love so much behind in the best hands, and that they will only continue to grow. A good leader doesn’t want to see the next person to take their place only to do as well as they did; they should want them to surpass what they were capable of doing. I’m thankful to PLA for helping to emphasize this message to me, and reminding me that thought it may be sad to leave behind the clubs and involvement that have been such a large part of my life for four years, I should be excited to see how the leaders I had the opportunity to once lead myself become better and better each year.
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