Leader of a group vs. manager in a company

A few days ago, the question was asked, is it more difficult to be the leader of a group or a manager in a company?

Personally, I have been both. I never enjoyed being a manager because you have a lot of responsibility but no real power. At the end of the day, your boss is telling you what to do. Many times, I was told to do things that I believe was not really good for my company .... but you still have to follow the orders.

At university, you have more freedom. However, it is true that it is difficu;t to be a leader when you are all "peers." It comes back to the role of a leader. A leader has two main roles:

a) Task roles: to achieve the task that has been given

b) Maintenance role: To maintain a good relationship between the members of a team

I suspect that some team leaders are having problems because they have not spent enough time developing a team spirit. Often, people do not invest in developing a relationship. You know one another's name but that is about it. To develop a real time spirit, everybody has to share things about themselves. That sharing is a way of telling everybody that you trust one another.

Why do you think I tell stories about Anas, Adam or Ammar? Why do you think I show pictures of my kids in class? Even my blog tells you some personal ideas or my experiences with MBA students? By sharing things that are personal (but not too personal), I am simply trying to build a sense of trust between me and the rest of the class. Everybody talks about "breaking the ice". That is misleading. People break the ice and then forget to build relationships. Everything in management is about relationships. Building relationships and (when necessary) destroying relationships.

The lesson which I take from the question is that you are finding the simulation difficult. Good. That means that you are learning something important..... :)