Look Who’s On the Steering Wheel

              “Wherever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision,” quotes social ecologist and management frontier Peter F. Drucker.  Successful businesses and industries abound the world today.  One good question worth of a thought then is this: who made that one courageous decision for the existence these businesses?  There are a considerable number of nominations to attribute such, out of which we’ll look closely at the “leader” and the “boss”.

The term boss was coined from the Dutch term “baas” meaning “a master”, a standard title for a ship’s captain. It was first used in English in 1625. In another article published by The New York Times in November of 1905, the word boss pertained to a master workman or overseer for two centuries before the civil war.  It is being applied to all trades, as boss carpenter, boss shipbuilder, boss of the job, even made it a verb as “to boss the meeting,” “you can’t boss me” etc.; all of this for a hundred years before it took on its present significance in our partisan organizations. Having evolved though, the connotation of a boss remains as the one doing hands-on and close supervision on the job that needs to be done, always visible in the work area or as in a battle, the one in front of the soldiers and the first to take off and shout in all bravery, “Fight!” The boss is the all-around man, the jack-of-all-trades in charge of stewardship of the whole group for the completion of a certain task. Taking from these, we come close to the conclusion that we call boss that one who made a courageous decision for a successful business. Who then is a leader?

Mahatma Gandhi, the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India, who lived in the 19^th century, has this view of leadership: “I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.” As businesses and the industry in itself developed and advanced in decades, the men constituting those, has welcomed change as well.  Management styles are formulated and the people on its hem significantly changed. The thrust now is on attitude and character.  No institution can possibly survive if it required geniuses or supermen to manage it.  Leadership today composed of average human beings who can influence the people through discipline and carrying out of common goals.  The leaders’ task is not to make out a perfect plan but to create organizations that are sufficiently flexible and versatile that they can take out imperfect plans and make them work in execution.  One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who chooses to follow the leader.  Yet despite all these, a leader is best when people barely know he exists. He talks little when his work is done, their aim is fulfilled and they, as a group, will say “We did it ourselves!” In a nutshell, the key to a successful leadership is influence and not authority. Finally, as Nelson Mandela put it, “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.”

Now whenever you see a successful business and wonder how it came to be, look who’s on the steering wheel. Is he a leader or a boss? A good boss puts out a fire. A great leader prevents them.

Rosyl C. Saldo

Philippine Resins Industries, Inc.

January 30, 2010