Formal and informal leaders in a team, group, organization

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

When it comes to any team - a group of students at a university or employees in the workplace, there is always a person appointed to the role of leader. It can be a headman, a senior manager, someone who is responsible for everyone and sets the direction for the process. This person is a formal leader, that is, officially vested with power. But is such a leader always real - not the one who should lead, but the one who will be followed with pleasure? How is an informal leader defined, what qualities does he possess? Let's talk about it 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 personality might not be the brightest among other children, but nevertheless, everyone in the company realized that it was he who was the ideological inspirer and organizer, and in some ways they tried to imitate him. That's what it isan example of what an informal leader is - a person who does not need nominal titles, but who is able to successfully organize, direct and complete the process, and who knows and skillfully uses the qualities of other team members.

Nominal and real control

Starting from adolescence, people are faced with a different type of leadership - nominal. The informal leader in the group does not require election, the team intuitively knows and feels that this person will lead everyone. The formal leader is elected. In school and higher education institutions, this is the headman - a student who is the link between the teaching staff and students. In a work team - a group of workers equal in position, the manager also most often chooses a "senior" who sets the vector of work and provides feedback on the labor process. What qualities should an official leader have and why most often a formal and informal leader cannot 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, you need to understand what qualities are valued by those who appoint the formal leader of the team. So, first of all, it is responsibility and punctuality - the formal organizer must clearly, “in form and on time” answer to the authorities about the work, the results of work. This person is often a careerist and does not hide it, and the authorities, seeing suchambition, moves him up the career ladder and uses this desire to his advantage. A formal leader may not be a person of the highest moral principles - in pursuit of his own goals, he sometimes has to inform the official superiors about the actions of his colleagues, report on what is happening within the team. In addition, a formal leader, using his position, can demonstrate his advantage in status over his colleagues. What are the qualities of an informal leader?

What are the characteristics of a real leader?

It is best to imagine an informal leader, focusing on the characteristics of the ringleader 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 may have outstanding leadership qualities, but suppress them due to circumstances (financial or otherwise). Children are not chasing anything, they are just playing for fun.

Remember who led your "gang" when you were a child, playing with your peers? This man might not have a clear physical advantage, but he had his own inner core. The leader does not adapt to anyone, he is on his own, and follows only his own convictions. This type of person never imitates the behavior of others, and no matter how much he likes them, he will not imitate. Its value is in its naturalness. The leader has his own clear value system, which will not change situationally. He gains trust because of his constancy and consistency in his decisions.

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

Leadership in the adult world

A holistic leader as a child may cease to be one as an adult. Since we live in society, we have to adapt to the circumstances, and sometimes get "on the throat" of our own desires. However, a person with pronounced leadership qualities will not cease to possess them, even if the situation is against him. Meanwhile, the roles of formal and real leaders are so different that they rarely intersect. A real leader in a leadership position is completely unprofitable for the boss. Such a person will not always obey instructions, is unlikely to inform on his comrades, and he will not succeed in playing “his own” both for the boss and for colleagues.

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

So is there an answer to the question: "What will be the leader - an informal leader?". For comrades and colleagues, perhaps, he would have become the best and most desirable manager, but this cannot be said in relation to higher authorities and the production process. It is for this reason that a wise boss will not choose a true leader with his "right hand", but will choose a candidate for other important qualities.

When an informal leader in a team is a hindrance

You need to understand that a true leader is most often a revolutionary at heart. He loves freedom, 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 an unkind service. Imagine that there is a person in the team who constantly incites comrades (and quite successfully) to skip couples, leave work earlier, arrange "sabantuy". 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 disrupt the process of work or study. Then the rebel will be "restrained" and will be able to manifest himself in other areas.

The role of the informal leader

Why do we need an informal leader of the organization? This question is quite naive, because it is this person who is the main inspirer and example for others. This is neither bad nor good - it's just how the roles are distributed. Without an informal leader in the team there will be nothing irreplaceable, although it is impossible to feel materially. Without such a glue, the members of the organization will feel like separate, unconnected units of the team. When there is no informal leader in the group, the members of the group do not have a common vector of movement. When it comes to work, without a real leader, there is often a turnover of staff, people easily leave the workplace in case of even small problems. And vice versa, an informal leader strengthens the team, people feel almost like a family. And sometimes they rush to work with no less pleasure than to go home after it.