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By: Etsko Schuitema (Linkedin)
Think of the best leader you would choose to work for.
Not someone you have to work for. Someone you want to work for.
However you describe them, your answer will reduce to two things.
Care and growth.
You would be describing someone who sees you.
Someone who develops you, invests in you and expects the best from you.
This is not accidental.
To work for someone willingly is to give them the right to exercise power over you. To allow them to direct your effort, to ask things of you, to hold you accountable.
We only give that right when we experience that their power is used in our interest.
We learned this principle long before we enter organisations, in the first relationship of power in our lives — between parent and child.
The first manifestation always demonstrates the principle and in this relationship the role of the parent is the care and growth of the child.
That is why we recognise it so easily in those we choose to follow.
Leadership is therefore not defined by position, but by intent.
It asks a simple question:
What must I do so that this person grows?
It gives attention.
It gives care.
It gives development.
It gives feedback that strengthens rather than diminishes.
Management, by contrast, is concerned with outcomes.
It organises, directs, and produces results through people.
This is necessary, but it is not leadership.
Because when the intent is only the outcome, something predictable happens.
People comply, but they do not commit.
They perform, but they do not grow, and without growth, results become something that must constantly be forced.
When leadership is present — when care and growth are real — something else happens.
People begin to give.
They bring more than what is required.
They take ownership.
They develop capability.
Not because they are controlled, but because they are willing.
Management is about outcomes.
Leadership is about people.
And when people grow, the outcomes take care of themselves.
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