What is Leadership?

Most people in B-school’s, corporates talk about Leadership these days. Some say leaders are born, some say leaders are made over time, some say crisis situations bring out the true leaders. Which of this is really true? Who is a leader? Why do most people want to become leaders? Why are leaders rated above others? If the above questions constitute one part there is a dark side which most people ignore which is, it is just not enough to be a leader, you need to become a good leader who is admired by the people around him/her.

History is the best source of information. There is no need to invent something new about Leadership. There were leaders in the past, there are leaders in the present and there will be leaders in the future. There have been good leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela etc etc. And there have been not so good leaders too like Adolph Hitler, Stalin, Aurangzeb. Again as this is my journal these are my views. Moving on, I would like to keep things small, simple and specific (my 3 S’s).

What is Leadership? Going by the simple definition, He/She is a leader who leads people. Is this enough? No. There are lot of other factors which constitute leadership.

- A leader needs to show a direction to the people who are following him/her

- A leader needs to have a vision

- A leader needs to believe in himself and his followers

- A leader needs to be courageous enough to stand up against the people who try to break the momentum

- A leader needs to create trust between him and the people following him

- A leader shouldn’t get bogged down by difficult of the difficult situations. Even if he does he shouldn’t show it

- A leader should voice the concerns of the society/individuals in a rightful manner

- A leader should avoid being selfish

- A leader should keep motivating people around him

- A leader should create that fire, passion in the individuals either through his personality or through his speeches

- A leader is generally wise and uses common sense

- A leader keeps things simple and has a positive attitude.

Well, these are some of the characteristics of a good leader which I could think of my mind based on my past learning’s and past experience.

Are leaders born or created over time? I would say, it is both. There have been great leaders like Akbar, Rani Lakshmi bhai of Jhansi, Tippu Sultan who were considered born leaders. They showed leadership qualities right from their childhood and excelled in very young age. And in contrast there are individuals like Mahatma Gandhi, Abdul Kalam who emerged as leaders over the time. Mostly the crisis situations around them brought out the leadership qualities in them. So leadership can come in-between or it can come naturally.

Why do people want to become Leaders? There are various reasons. Some have that quality naturally so it’s not their fault. Some want to have name and fame. Some want power while some want money. Some just do not want to follow others instead want others to follow him. Some have a vision and their passion leads them to become leaders. There are both selfish reasons and not so selfish reasons. One has to identify why he/she wants to become a leader.

Good Leader vs Not so good Leader. Let me ask this question. When the topic on leadership was put forward how many of us wanted to become a leader vs a good leader. I am sure most of us would thought “I want to be a leader”. And very few would have said “I want to become a good leader if not settle as a good individual”.

As a good leader, you need to ensure that you develop a trust between you and the individuals. You need to believe them. You should respect them. You shouldn’t be arrogant whereas you should be assertive. You shouldn’t be selfish whereas you should be honest. A good leader does not try to impose his decisions. Instead of taking other’s credit, he gives credit to whoever deserves. A good leader needs to listen more, talk when needed, take decisions when needed. He leads people around him/her, motivates them and more importantly understands them. He stands for them and he is prepared to sacrifice himself for them if needed.

Finally, this is my favourite, a good leader steps out and gives way when he feels that there is a better leader than him. Just think how many of us would do this.

--By Krishna Kranthi

Who is a Leader?

As we move towards the second and last phase of the leadership course (not the learning off course), there are learnings as well as questions (and some with their answers) that this course has provided us with. Learnings off course give us all the leadership theories, facts; figures etc which help us in the necessary understanding of concepts and principles (which are very necessary) but questions give us another paradigm to think. Leadership is probably one of the most talked about everywhere, but the least understood. Our ancestors and to a certain extent, we all, associate leaders with a charismatic personality or grey hair or people with experience or a set of mastered skills. But what in reality makes someone a leader or an effective leader? Is it only the support of the masses or the ability to topple governments or being the CEO of an organization? Well to most of us, this is what symbolizes leadership and leaders.

Consider this example (from today’s newspapers). Adhishree Gopalkrishnan, a class 9 student and her parents took the lead to fight a case against the alleged fee hike by private schools. Are they not leading the way for the benefit of the society? Are they also not leaders in some sense who are knowingly or unknowingly doing it for everybody?

We all know that an entire nation followed Mahatma Gandhi but what was there in a lean, thin, non-charismatic guy who was not even a good speaker. Well, it was his attitude and actions which gave him the ability to lead and so it’s important to shed some of our common, age old beliefs and understand the real meaning of leadership and the traits of a good leader.

In the organizational context, most of us are forgetting the role of leadership and its importance in the execution of our roles and responsibilities and our everyday lives. Is leadership a skill or an attitude? I choose to call it an attitude because attitude is what shapes everything. If a porter has all the skills in the world but no attitude to dirty his hands in the mud, the beautiful sculpture would never come out. But on the other hand, if he has the right attitude, he can do wonders. The same is with leadership and leaders.

Does position alone makes you a good leader or tells that you have a leadership attitude or ability. I believe no because had that been the case then no organization would have faced any issues that they face today.

Does spending 25 years in an organization make you a good leader? Is it just the sheer longevity of the job, experience that matters and is that why people today are heading the organizations or departments? Well unfortunately, in most of the cases it is the case and that’s why organizations tend to suffer from cultural and organizational issues including the succession planning.

So what exactly is leadership? Can it be learnt through books? Yes, we can study and learn all those books and concepts on leadership but to be an effective leader, you need something else and that’s called attitude, understanding and execution (the same can be broken down into multiple traits at times). You also need to have a vision and more importantly the sight of the goal that you intend to achieve and an effective way of communication that may not necessarily be verbal always. You don’t always need followers to be a leader. You can be a shop floor worker who thinks that wastage can be reduced and hence you take the lead, talk to the authorities and implement it, make everyone understand the benefits and scale it. The trust and confidence are earned and not learnt. Off course learning gives us the necessary skills and understanding but it’s one’s own attitude and will (combined with other traits) that makes him an effective leader.

--By Gaurav Sharma

Leaders are made, not born...

There is a constant clamor about “leaders being born and not made”. It’s so easy to assume that there are certain qualities inherent to people which make them good leaders because these qualities are not common and difficult to acquire. I agree that leadership can only be learnt through experiences and cannot be taught. But does that mean that leaders are born with these qualities? We have to look it from a broader perspective.

People who are reckoned as good leaders generally display some common qualities and these qualities have more of human element to it than functional. Some of these qualities are vision, resilience, creativity, team play etc. When a child is born, its impossible to predict whether it will become a future leader or not. As the child grows , it imbibes different values, skills and attitude from the society which influence his/her thoughts and actions. Its only when these values, skills and attitude surface in form of actions taken by an individual influencing lives of many, we realize the presence of a leader among us. It’s not hard to prove that it takes time for a human being to understand the complex fabric of society, human values and human needs. A leader is always well verse of these complexities and so the qualities are mostly acquired through experiences in life.

Another way to prove that leadership qualities can be developed is the knowledge that leadership is always in a context. If leadership had been hardwired than all leaders would have acted similarly to different situations, but that is not true. History is flooded with numerous examples of leaders in different forms and situations.

The reason for such a conundrum, I think, is the presence of many varying and hard to acquire qualities in one human being. For example, we have thousands of soldiers guarding Siachin glacier from intruders and showing tremendous resilience, we have thousands of creative handicraft workers and we have millions envisioning a 2020 India, but do we call all of them leaders? I don’t think so. Now think of a person who has a vision of 2020 India, have creative solutions to Indian problems and work through all the road blocks with resilience to make it happen. Would you call him/her a leader? The chances are very high that you would. Good leaders have many varying qualities that they develop and that creates the differentiation. Leaders can be made and they are made. Leadership is about continuous learning, as I said its a process, so it cannot be a gift given to some at the time of birth just because God loved them more. Leadership is not God’s gift but a man’s will to make a difference.

-- By Jiten Jain a.ka JJ

Leadership quote

Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it......

-- By Mohammad Fahad Hafeez

Tracing Leadership back to Scriptures

Have we ever thought about leaders in Indian scriptures and the relevance of that style of leadership in the context of the present organizations?

Recently, I was going through a broadcast called ‘Business Sutra’ on CNBC TV18 where Mr.Devdutt Pattanaik was speaking about the relationship between leadership and scriptures. Mr.Devdutt Pattanaik is a Chief Belief Officer at Future Group. In this article, I have tried to pen down an essence of the discussion he was having with the interviewer. He mentioned some valuable points which I was not aware of earlier.

The discussion began with how various avatars of Lord Vishnu represent leadership at various stages and phases of a corporation’s life?

If we have a look at Vishnu’s image, we see the following in each of his four hands:

• One hand has the shankha (the conshell) which is used for communicating
• The other hand has chakra (the wheel) which is used for reviewing
• The third hand has the gada (the club) which is used for discipline
• And the fourth hand has the padma (the lotus) which is used for appreciation

All the four qualities mentioned above are essential traits for any good leader and Lord Vishnu symbolises the same. Now, let us focus on discipline as one of the traits. To discipline people, does the leader have to follow a set of rules or is there any rule book in place?

Here, we need to understand that every rule exists in a context. When the context changes the set of rules also change. For example, rules for T20 are much different than those of a test cricket.

In scriptures, we don’t have fixed rules but we do have fixed principles. The rules are further explained by the concept of “Yuga”. The world exists in four parts just like the life cycle of a human being. They are youth, maturity, old age and serenity. There are different set of rules in each of these stages. As we see, this is analogous to the corporation’s or product’s life cycle as well. All the Yugas will have different set of rules based on one common principle called ‘Dharma’.

Hence, the roles of different avatars of Vishnu uphold the same overarching principle of Dhrama but following different rules. So, using one overarching principle (or goal/vision for an organisation), different kinds of leadership is required in different phases in an organisation’s life cycle. But, all the leadership decisions and actions taken being in-line with the organisation’s goal/vision (the one overarching principle).

This was a short analogy between how leadership can be traced back to scriptures and how the analogy is relevant in the context of the present organisation also.

--By Sachin Wagh

Bharat Bandh – What can I do ?

When I got the news that Monday is Bharat Bandh, my first feeling was of happiness. Wow, I will have an extended weekend. I can spend quality time at home with my entire family. ‘I hate Luv storys’ seems to be a good movie and has got decent reviews. Lets watch it …

I have witnessed many Bharat Bandhs and Mumbai Bandhs. But earlier, I used to get very agitated and had many questions like why do we have these bandhs? What purpose does it achieve? Why cause such a big loss to our own nation? Is this the right way to fight our own government? No, I should do something about it. However, my agitation always culminated in frustration – what can I do about all this! I am just a common man and have no power to do anything. And now, over the years, my frustration has also gradually receded and I have accepted the situation. Even better, I have started seeking personal happiness within the boundaries of the unchangeable situation.

So, when I first heard of Bharat Bandh on Monday, my feeling was of happiness. I enjoyed a relaxing extended weekend with my family, switching the TV news channels which fed status updates of the bandh as breaking news in my living room. And yes, now I can also recommend that ‘I hate Luv storys’ is a good movie.

The next day, we had a discussion in our class where maam asked us what did we do on the bandh? I hesitated to mention that I had a good time with my family. Later I tried to introspect. If I am really happy with how I spent my bandh holiday, why did I hesitate to mention about it. Am I really happy? No. I realized that finding personal happiness within the boundaries of unchangeable situation is like faking my happiness. It is just like a mask. Somewhere deep inside, I am still unhappy. I know I cannot change the situation. So what do I do to be really happy?

It was then that I remembered one of our Gita Shibir learning. ‘Judge yourself by your efforts, not the outcome’.

Wow.. This is the answer. So the next time there is a bandh, I will want to somehow contribute against the futility of such bandhs. I have not yet decided on how I will contribute, it may be something like writing this blog. But I am sure that in whichever way I contribute, my squirrel's efforts will be in the highest and best interest of our nation, both in thought and action. And I can find true happiness in my genuine efforts, and not be disillusioned by the outcome of my efforts. And if many common men start to think like this, and also start to happily contribute genuine efforts without getting disheartened by the failed outcomes, I feel we can soon reach a critical mass where our genuine efforts can create a significant impact.

--By Reuben Moses Ezekiel

Are Present leaders really value based?

Are Present leaders really value based?

Do Indians live by values or think them to be good enough to display on dash-board only and worship as part of culture?

Do we have real values to pass on to future generations?

Have we inherited values that our ancestors were once proud of?

Well, I don’t know answers to the above questions. It does not mean that I am ashamed to be Indian, but it certainly means that I am not a strong proponent of the saying that Indians are among the most value based people. I may sound pessimistic, but I believe that it is high time to come out of the fantasy of being Indian, accept the realties around and take action for future. Do something that we can really be proud of having and passing on to future generations. We don’t need to do some miracle but take small steps, in fact very small steps.

One of those very small steps is do what you say and say what you can do. Don’t boast; don’t pretend; no showbiz please!

Introspect, know yourself and then act. Start at personal level and then scale up... If we all do the required, things can be done!

But question is are we really prepared or willing to do? Do we have enough courage? How to use the platform to address issues? And yes if we be on platform, will we be carried away by the wind or be connected to realties that we intend to change at some point of time?

NTPC and BHEL are Navratanas. Both vouch of fairness and honesty !

Their value statement can be seen at their websites..

1) Value statement of NTPC can be seen at—

http://www.ntpc.com/about/mission2010.html

2) Value statement of BHEL can be seen at—

http://www.bhel.com/about.php

And now see the economic times article—

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6140966.cms

And now the age-old question—how can you prove that our officials took bribe? We as organization are against the corrupt practices like this. May be our vendor has taken…its mere allegations….

This story I have been hearing for long.

I know that it is difficult to wipe out corruption at 100% level and ethics and culture are contextual. But taking bribe for doing things that anyways one ought to do as part of the job he is being paid for certainly doesn’t command oversight!

Contextual boundaries are thin and one can defend...But I feel there is one question that can help many of us taking control of our acts—

Will I be proud of my act if the same gets published in newspaper next day and my family & friends read the same over cup of tea in morning?

If answer is No, then stop, think for a while and act. Have courage to refrain! Address from your platform in whatever small ways you can.

Don’t blame and say,” sab chalta hai..Sab leta hai toh main kyon nahi luh. Be with the world”.

--By Pooja Ranjan

P.S. -- Opinions expressed in the article are strictly personal and does not resemble in any way to SPJIMR.