{"id":3520,"date":"2025-03-31T20:03:18","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T20:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3520"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:11:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:11:14","slug":"being-a-leader-is-often-conflated-with-being-a-star-or-a-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/being-a-leader-is-often-conflated-with-being-a-star-or-a-boss\/","title":{"rendered":"Being a Leader Is Often Conflated with Being a Star or a Boss"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

To become a better leader, it\u2019s crucial to clearly define what leadership actually is\u2014and what it isn\u2019t. In business, there\u2019s a tendency to conflate being a leader with being a star or a boss.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to Academy of Management Scholar Sean Martin of the University of Virginia<\/a>, who said that those are three very different things:<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cA star is somebody who has individually excellent talents who can show other people how great they are; they can show up and perform; they stand out in some way; they often tend to be very charismatic; and they get a lot of attention for it, often deserved attention.\u201d
\n\u2022 \u201cA boss is someone who just has power; they\u2019re higher up than you or I might be in a hierarchy, and we think of power as being basically the opposite of dependence. People are dependent upon a boss for things like performance evaluations, raises and bonuses, extra days off, or \u2018Please don’t yell at me!\u2019 in the worst-case scenarios. So when a boss says, \u2018Hey, do what I’m telling you to do,\u2019 we’ll say, \u2018Okay\u2019 and do it because you want the things they can offer.\u201d
\n\u2022 However, a leader is something very different from a star or a boss, he said. Leaders use their influence for getting things done for the long-term benefit of the organization, not to get plaudits or exert authority to feel powerful. Leadership is about earning respect from peers and direct reports, not demanding it.<\/p>\n

\u201cInfluence is more about getting people to do what they don\u2019t necessarily have to do and otherwise might not do, but they\u2019re doing it for you because you\u2019ve built the kind of relationships, set up the kind of workplace, and created the kind of context for open communication so that people feel like they can come to you,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people feel like you care about them, when you ask them to do something, whether you\u2019re their boss or not, they\u2019re going to say, \u2018Okay, well, I’m going to do what they\u2019re asking, because it\u2019s them who\u2019s asking, not because they have something that I must get,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cYou can do leadership from any level of an organization.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher To become a better leader, it\u2019s crucial to clearly define what leadership actually is\u2014and what it isn\u2019t. In business, there\u2019s a tendency to conflate being a leader with being a star or a boss. That\u2019s according to Academy of Management Scholar Sean Martin of the University of Virginia, who said that those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,19],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers","category-leadership"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBeing a Leader Is Often Conflated with Being a Star or a Boss - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/being-a-leader-is-often-conflated-with-being-a-star-or-a-boss\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/being-a-leader-is-often-conflated-with-being-a-star-or-a-boss\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/being-a-leader-is-often-conflated-with-being-a-star-or-a-boss\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Being a Leader Is Often Conflated with Being a Star or a Boss\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-31T20:03:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-09T15:11:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/being-a-leader-is-often-conflated-with-being-a-star-or-a-boss\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":399,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/being-a-leader-is-often-conflated-with-being-a-star-or-a-boss\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/team-listens-to-boss.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"CAREERS\",\"LEADERSHIP\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/being-a-leader-is-often-conflated-with-being-a-star-or-a-boss\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/being-a-leader-is-often-conflated-with-being-a-star-or-a-boss\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/being-a-leader-is-often-conflated-with-being-a-star-or-a-boss\\\/\",\"name\":\"Being a Leader Is Often Conflated with Being a Star or a Boss - 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In business, there\u2019s a tendency to conflate being a leader with being a star or a boss. 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