Formal and informal leaders in the team, group, organization

When it comes to any team - a group of students in the university or employees in the workplace, there is always a person appointed to lead. It can be the elder, the senior manager, the one who is responsible for all and sets the direction of the process. This person is a formal leader, that is, officially authorized. But is such a leader always real - not the one who should lead, but the one with whom they will gladly go? How is an informal leader determined, what qualities does he have? Let's talk about this in this article.

Leadership and organization

Remember yourself as a child. Playing with peers on the street, you intuitively knew who the initiator of your entertainment and pranks. This person could not be the brightest among other children, but nevertheless everyone in the company realized that he was the ideological inspirer and organizer, and in some ways tried to imitate him. This is an example of who the informal leader is - a person who does not need nominal titles, but who can successfully organize, direct and complete the process, and who knows and skillfully uses the qualities of the other team members.

Nominal and Real Governance

Starting with adolescence, people face a different type of leadership - nominal. An informal leader in a group does not require election, the collective intuitively knows and feels that this person will lead everyone. The formal leader is elected. In school and higher educational institutions, this is the elder - the student, which is the link between the teaching staff and students. In the working group - a group of workers who are equal in their positions, the manager also most often chooses the "senior", who sets the vector of work and gives the opportunity for feedback on the labor process. What qualities should an official leader have and why is it more likely that a formal and informal leader can not be represented by the same person?

The difference between nominal and real leadership

In order to understand why real leaders rarely find themselves in leadership positions, it is necessary to understand what qualities are valued by those who appoint a formal leader of the collective. So first and foremost, it is responsibility and punctuality - the formal organizer must clearly, "in form and in time," answer to the authorities about work, the results of labor. This person is often a careerist and does not hide it, and the bosses, seeing such ambitiousness, promote him on the career ladder and enjoy such a desire in his own interests. A formal leader may not be the person of the highest moral principles - pursuing his own goals, he sometimes has to inform the official authorities about the actions of his colleagues, to report on what is happening within the collective. In addition, the formal leader, using his position, can demonstrate his superior status in front of colleagues. What are the qualities of an informal leader?

What are the features of a real leader?

It is best to imagine an informal leader, focusing on the characteristics of the zavodila in the children's team. Children behave much more naturally than adults, since they are not yet bound by any obligations. For example, a person can possess outstanding leadership qualities, but suppress them because of circumstances (financial or otherwise). Children do not chase after anything, they just play for fun.

Remember who headed your "gang" when you were a child playing with your peers? This person might not have a clear physical advantage, but he had his inner core. The leader does not adapt to anyone, he is on his own, and goes only for his own convictions. This type of people never imitates the behavior of others, and no matter how they like it, they will not imitate. Its value is in its naturalness. The leader has its own clear system of values, which will not change in situ. He is winning confidence because of his consistency and consistency in the decisions he makes.

An informal leader also does not need followers, he will not form around himself a circle of imitators. He offers ideas, but if the collective does not consider it necessary to implement them, then he will not humble himself to requests. Remember childhood: it is unlikely that the leader of your company has persuaded everyone to play in this or that game. If he offered something, and the other guys refused, he just changed the idea.

Leadership in the adult world

A holistic leader in childhood can cease to be so, having matured. Since we live in a society, we have to adjust to the circumstances, and sometimes become "throaty" to our own desires. However, a person with pronounced leadership qualities will not cease to have them, even if the situation develops against him. Meanwhile, the roles of a formal and a real leader are so different that they intersect quite infrequently. A real leader in a leading position is completely unprofitable. Such a person will not always obey orders, he is unlikely to report to his comrades, and he will not be able to play "his own" either for the boss or for his colleagues.

Or imagine that the head of the group in an educational institution was appointed an informal leader. If there is an opportunity to skip lectures, of course, an informal leader will want to use it, because he is an ideological organizer and is looking for the most effective ways of spending time for himself and the team. But for the elder, such a decision is not correct, since it harms the educational process.

So is there an answer to the question: "What kind of leader is an informal leader?". For comrades and colleagues, perhaps, he would have become the best and desirable manager, but this can not be said with regard to higher authorities and the production process. It is for this reason that the wise leader does not elect his true "right hand" leader, but chooses a candidate for other important qualities.

When an informal leader in a team is a hindrance

It must be understood that the true leader is most often a revolutionary in the soul. He loves freedom, his authorities are alien to him, he has no idols. It does not matter what he does and what position he works in - first of all he will listen to the inner voice, and not to the needs of the work process. These qualities can play him unkindly. Imagine that there is a person in the team who constantly picks up comrades (and, quite successfully) skip pairs, leave work earlier, arrange "Sabantu". If this person is valuable as an employee, then the authorities should give him a separate role in the organization. For example, to give such powers that it would be unprofitable for him to violate the process of work or study. Then the rebel will be "curbed" and will be able to manifest himself in other spheres.

The role of the informal leader

Why do we need an informal leader of an organization? This question is rather naive, because this person is the main inspirer and an example for others. It's not bad and not good - just so the roles are distributed. Without an informal leader in the team, there will not be something irreplaceable, although it is impossible to feel materially. Without such "glue" members of the organization will feel disconnected, not related units of the team. When there is no informal leader in the group, the members of the group do not have a common movement vector. If we are talking about work, then without a real leader there is often a turnover of staff, people easily leave the workplace in the event of even small problems. And on the contrary, the informal leader strengthens the collective, people feel themselves almost a family. And sometimes they hurry to work with no less pleasure than after it home.