Next up in my friend series is one of my best friends, Maizie! This past year she served as the President of my sorority, Phi Mu, and now I have taken on President and am following her role. She wanted to share with you all what she learned over the past year and her tips with being a leader rather than a boss.
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There is a fine line between being a boss and being a leader. Throughout the past year, as the President of my sorority, I have learned a lot about being a leader, rather than a boss, and how it is much more beneficial for your team to be a leader. This past year, I led an executive committee of eight other women and together we led our chapter. I began my term inspired by what I had learned at our officer academy training sessions (which took place at Disney in Orlando, I might add). I was, and still am, inspired to be a servant leader, and I wanted to lead my chapter in a way that made them more prepared to lead themselves in the future.
By being a leader, rather than a boss, you can inspire autonomy in your team, and motivate them to get excited about our common goals. Bosses give deadlines, requirements, and mandates. While leaders give high expectations, and guidelines, with the occasional deadlines when needed. A huge difference between having a boss and having a team leader is the ability to come to them when you need help or have made a mistake. It is much easier to come to your team leader and admit you need their guidance, rather than coming to your boss and admitting you messed up.
Leaders inspire their team in ways that a boss cannot. At the beginning of this year, I asked my chapter “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” I hoped to inspire them to step out of their comfort zone, and expand our chapter to its fullest potential. Rather than imposing requirements on them, I simply inspired them to dream about what they could do and got them excited and motivated to find out!
I could go on, and on, about all the beneficial things I learned during my time as President. I will be honest, there were times where I felt like I wanted to give up. It was definitely not an easy job, but I made a commitment, and by sticking with it, I turned each of those hard times into a lesson. Overall, one of the greatest lessons I will always carry with me is how to be a leader rather than a boss. I hope you all can take one lesson or piece of advise I mentioned and instill it in your personal or professional life.
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Maizie is one of the most inspirational leaders I know and I look up to her in so many ways because of everything she accomplished for our sorority. I love her advice and hope you all enjoyed it as well.
XOXO, Tayler
Tayler Renee May 