Why should I become a Leader? 8

[pandamon]

I'm an engineer and my dream is to design products that will provide solutions to problems our world faces.
Sometimes I question myself, why can't I just become a team member, why must I strive to be the leader of my team instead? Are there any benefits of becoming a leader? And will being a leader help make my dream come true?
I can see the draw backs alright, such as the extra responsibilities, time and sweat put in, but there's also benefits such as glory, but is there more to wanting to become a leader than just glory?
Why do people want to become leaders in the first place?

 

[ScotchWhisky]

I'm not sure you should become a leader.

 

[lacajun]

I never thought of myself as a leader. I still don't. My interests were learning, doing a good job, and working to get along with my teammates. Others saw me differently. They made me a leader; I didn't.

Through work it came to my attention that others were following me. This was several years into my career. I was surprised and humbled to realize how much impact my words and actions had on those men. It impressed the need to be much more mature than I felt, to measure my words carefully, to not get puffed up about me, and temper all responses with a higher degree of understanding of the audience than myself.

In my personal life, I learned through an extremely hard lesson that others, even youngsters, were following me, too, simply through my words. That lesson was so hard it still saddens and humbles me and hopefully it always will. That was the first lesson in watching my words, all of them, i.e., even the ones meant as humor.

In ways, you are probably already a leader and don't know. Don't obsess over it to the point of narcissism.

Leadership is a huge responsibility, when done right.

Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC

 

[lacajun]

As for glory, I gave that to the people working under me on projects. Without them, nothing would have happened and the projects were a success because of them. You never work in a vacuum and the glory needs to be spread to all concerned including the janitor. You'll learn this, too.

Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC

 

[Twoballcane]

Some people are just natural born leaders. I’ve read that people who were the oldest out of their siblings, played on teams, on a club board of directors were natural born leaders…etc. Yes, leadership can be taught and learned, but for some it is easy and others difficult. I think it comes down to how much stress you can handle. Some people thrive on stress (and most likely workaholics) and you can see them rise thru the career ladder while others are 9 to 5vers.

Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."
“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity”

 

[IRstuff]

You can be taught the mechanics of leadership, just as you can be taught the mechanics of tennis. However, there will be those that can practice until the cows come home, and will be a distant shadow of Andre Agassi. As with just about any sort of human endeavor, talent and skill are both required for success.

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[Ron]

Pamela...well stated and entirely correct. When you realize in the eighth grade that the coach picks you as one of two to pick the opposing teams, you're suddenly a "leader". You then choose on ability AND inclusion...at that age the need is for both. Some people would be surprised at the ability of some who are chosen and included...just because they were. Humbling.

 

[moltenmetal]

I quite liked the Despair.com "Leaders" poster: it had a picture of an eagle soaring in a clear blue sky, and was captioned "Leaders- are like eagles. We don't have either of them here.".

There isn't a lot of leading (or following) per se going on in our place. Instead, there's a lot of coping, reacting, collaboration (and a fair bit of commiseration too) and a tolerance (in fact encouragement) of self-direction. This lack of leadership has served us reasonably well, although it hasn't been without its problems.

Leadership implies vision, planning, and a willingness on the part of others to follow. Successful leadership implies that the person with the vision can actually see straight- in fact, it requires them to not only see straight,but to see into the future a fair way, which is obviously not something that can be consistently relied upon. Unfortunately leadership usually comes with a desire to see visions come to fruition and to execute plans as written. That desire sometimes overpowers the more essential need to monitor and change plans and even destinations when circumstances change. Leaders sometimes lead their teams off the nearest cliff because they're too busy chasing the vision in their head to keep their eyes on where they're actually going.

 

[SnTMan]

Apparently pandamon is now leading to such an extent that he is not detectable anymore

 

[AgeXVII]

What are we considering to be a leading position? Leading a team of electricians on a job? Leader a team of engineers on projects? I guess I am confused as to what a "leader" is in this field...

Designing projects/equipment is leading and having others build/complete it in the field?

Personally I would love to be on a team and get some experience with group working etc and hopefully someday (soon)!

 

[SnTMan]

AgeXVII, well, I'll pass along one fact about team work for you, it is this:

A team cannot move faster than its' slowest member.

Regards,

Mike

 

[AgeXVII]

Mike,

Yes I have heard that before and completely agree unless the team leaves that member in the dust and does everything around/without them which isn't good or helpful for anyone. I just wanted to know in the sense of the original post what were they calling a leader. I personally love being on teams and working with others but currently I am not in that position.


-AJ

 

[johnwill65]

Because the old grind away in silence at your desk or in your cube doing the same calculations or design for the umpteenth time can get a bit old. But leading a group of other folks to do all the grinding, while you get to meet with clients, attend meetings, tell others what to do, and check everyone elses work while getting them to do it more or less your way can have its own rewards too. It's not for everyone, because ultimately YOU have to take ALL the responsibility for your team as its leader--when you are successful it reflects mostly on you--and that can be a great career booster. Plus, you get more money--not such a bad thing either. The other benefit is that you are far more able to network when you are team leader since you will meet far many more key people in the field that the guy at his desk who never leaves the office will never meet.

 

[TheBlacksmith]

I'm with Pamela on this one. I am considered a leader or lead where I work and am supervised by a manager. He has to do all the hard work, budgets, evaluations, take the heat for my candid remarks ... I am paid about the same as he is and to this day am amazed when senior people come to me for advice or I can talk down an angry customer and get him to agree with me in short order. I guess that's leadership or being a leader.