“ Leaders become great, not because of their power; but because of their ability to empower others.“

John C. Maxwell

Being in a position of power does not in itself make someone a leader, while a CEO or any other manager can be considered a leader for being in charge of an organization, a branch, a department or a group of people and they can exercise that power by giving command, instructions or specific directions, true leadership power is about more than that, true leadership is about leading people in the right direction not because you have the authority to do so, but because they trust you have their best interest at heart.

We have seen people in authority lead people with fear, take for example Muammar Gaddafi who ruled Libya with an iron fist from 1969 to 1977, he dissolved existing laws and removed all of his opponents from public view, when he did not agree with something he would just declare it illegal and would not hesitate to have anyone who questioned him or opposed arrested or even killed. That, of course, is an extreme example of leadership gone wrong and leading with fear, still many CEO, manager or anyone else in a position of power can to some extend lead with fear. When that happens employees are afraid, they might be afraid of losing their job, getting a pay cut, a demotion or simple being ridicule. This type of power is not a good leading technique and it can result in negative consequences for an organization, from employee morale to subordinates lying because they don’t want to get in trouble.

A true leader in the other hand, has develop a relationship of trust with their followers and they follow the leader not because he has the authority to do so, but because they believe the leader has their best interest at heart and has the skill to guide them in the right direction. Nelson Mandela is a great example of a true leader, before becoming the first black president of South Africa in 1994 he had earned the trust of the people and spent years in jail fighting governments’ injustices.

While these are two extreme cases, a manager in an organization falls somewhere in between. Managers have a responsibility to the organization they work for and to make sure their employees are performing to the expectation set up by the organization, yet they are still called to be leaders and finding the balance between leading  with power and true leadership is the key to being a good manager. A good manager knows the people who was entrusted to lead and have their best interest at heart, yet he can use power when needed to make sure the people he/she is leading are performing at their expected level, finding the balance is a real challenge, but is definitely worth the effort.