Leadership Series @ SIIB ( 12th September 2009 )

Leadership is a spirit that spawns in every soul that has faith in conquering the unknown frontiers. It is not necessary that a leader would always have a team to lead, to coordinate to achieve a set target. To me leadership is an instinct which compels one to go on the front step and hit confidently a swinging ball through the meat of the bat for a racing boundary. Instinct is the innate talent that causes a living being to respond reflexively to a given stimulus in a certain way. Many say leadership can't be taught nor can natural timing.

Its like falling in love. One can't plan or prepare to go for it. Its the collection of basic instincts that pushes her to take control of adverse situations...which makes her see an opportunity where there are none. Some dare to think beyond whats right & whats wrong, whats acceptable & whats unacceptable. It was only when man dared, he could fly high, he could walk... Only when we dare, we can think on new lines. Only then can one see solutions where others see problems. It is exactly when one switches his focus for direction to inside of herself instead of outside entity. Captain Jack Sparrow's compass can be looked upon as the guide when external landmarks aren't clear enough. Especially when we one finds oneself facing a fast-changing reality, the ability to maneuver the "internal frame of reference" to quickly match a new, changed reality or a new problem - tastes new success.
To lead one should be able to submit also. Weaknesses may surface as fear, a lack of confidence, or even arrogance. One needs to accept them & then overcome them. Else these remain as hidden obstacles to thoughts & so to actions. Each one of us, has a continuous thought process, where we think about things happening around us, and we decide what is best for us to do to survive. If we try to introspect what we do, we find that usually we do have all the options that even the most successful people have. But what makes it different are the choices we make and the priorities we assign to them. To lead one needs to first be able to support the very thought process which identifies her in the very first place. One who is able to this is so-called a "Confident person". I would call such a person a leader also as she has been able to take control of herself and lead herself from the front.
History is evident to the fact that its the worst of situations which give birth to the best of leaders, quite possibly because its when we really need one. It is quite rightly then, that one experiences a personal challenge. A person who is confident of what one thinks, can only focus on what crisis the society is facing as a whole. A leader starts to think beyond the needs of a typical human. This is the process by which we develop new ideas and learn that our existing notions are incorrect or inadequate. The Maslow's need theory possibly takes a shuffle for them. This I would say what spawns the creation of a leader.
Our own thought process teaches us, to be bold in what we believe. It shows with time that it pays to stick to them, and its only then that we can someone else believe in those results. In one word, we call it determination. When we think, we give birth to a thought which is identified by two major things - the way we identify it & the extent to which we back it. As a human, we have the tendency to conform to things that bring a higher feeling of safety in us. So a thought projected by a confident person in an effective way gets our approval and so the thought grows as the number of people to support increases. Not surprising that we remember leaders by the very thoughts they stood by.
Researchers have been puzzled a lot by the team of ants at work for they execute their operations with high efficiency and with high motivation. The question we face as to how can they achieve this without a leader? The way I make sense of it comes something like this... For a layman, we know there is a CPU in the computer which coordinates all the signals, processes & hardware in the computer. If we look into it a bit deeper, we come to know that each component has a processing unit of its own. Probably ants too have a little bit of leadership instinct in each one of them. When faced with a difficulty each one of them takes the initiative to solve it. Many of them come together to make possible things that very few species can be proud of on earth. So I would call it wrong to define a leader to a person who leads a team. Rather leadership is a spirit that lives in each of us. Some believe in it, rest wait for confirmation from others that they are right. One should always hold onto some quotient of responsibility for oneself and the situation one is in. Whether to ignore our “leadership instinct” - decides which side we are on.

By: Shantanu Biswas ( Contributor, Leadership Article Contest )

Batch of 2008-10

The unvanquished warrior was confident in his strength. So, when given the option to choose between a fully equipped, belligerent army and a single unarmed man, he chose the later. All that he wanted was a driver for his chariot. How this unarmed charioteer gave guidance to the chariot and the warrior would later become a shining episode in a culture, revered by a civilization, enthralling the world for ages to come…

Arjuna knew that even the most well disposed armies can go haywire if not led ably. But much before the age of Mahabharatha, even before evolution of human race, leadership existed. Animal packs and flocks of birds stuck with their leads. The footprints left by the leader manoeuvred the followers and thus made a trail for those who come. Leaving the exception of probably ants, every living species replicates this blueprint. It's embedded in the genetic code- in a majority, to be led, and in a selected few, to lead.

What makes a leader? Why are leaders so few? Cutting through a myriad of elaborated theories and sophisticated models, Seth Godin in his latest book "Tribes" says, "Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead. The scarcity makes leadership valuable." Perusing the annals of history, we see proof of the struggles that leaders over the centuries have taken to remove thorns from the trail they leave. They stay awake for their tribe to sleep soundly. Often the portrait of a leader is of one who is smug in luxuries. But remember that any leader not having discomfort is passing it on to the multitude that looks up to him.

As the quote from the movie goes, a leader is the one who ‘got vision when the rest of the world wears bifocals’. He sees the tomorrow for his followers and enables them to achieve it. Defining the role of a leader can be tricky. He is required wherever and whenever there is lack of clarity. He may be omnipresent or barely visible. As Lao Tzu noted, “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”

It’s interesting to see how Krishna concluded his magnificent discourse which we now call “Bhagavath Geetha”. He tells Arjuna, "Vimarsedath asheshena Yadhechhasi Thadha Kurum"- Fully ponder over what I said and do as you like. A leader, therefore, never spoon feeds. He keeps the options open for his followers; he lets them apply their minds. He should never tell how to do but just what to do.

A leader may start by making the masses believe in him. But his ultimate aim should be in making them believe in themselves. And this happens by giving away power. By giving away power, a leader gains the respect. Thus a leader should be judged not by the number of followers, but by number of leaders he has given rise to.

By: Prasanth Vijay ( Winner of Leadership Article Contest )

In the age of motivational speakers and self-help books, it would seem but natural when phrases like “decisive leadership”, “walking the talk”, “visionary leadership”, “seven habits of highly successful people” pervade our conversations .And not just in academic courses like MBA where leadership styles will be examined in great depth, these phrases will find a welcoming home even in informal chats .Is this truly the Age of Every Man is a Leader? Did Alice finally figure out all the philosophical challenges put forth in the Wonderland, emerge unscathed and ready to take the boardroom by storm? Does every person who speaks marketing glib talk have it in her to take the Fortune 500 company in crisis to greater heights? Let us walk on the path of examining this phenomenon of the leader being one from a million to now a concept where the leadership skills have become talking points for the masses.

The early leader was a military genius: he could lead a battalion under testing conditions and bring greater glory to the king. The king was of course a “natural” leader: the DNA route for leadership was, it seems; forever fixed. The nobility was looked forward to for leader-like qualities: noblesse oblige (“with wealth, power and prestige come responsibilities”), if you please. Royal poets wrote of battles and dilemmas facing the kings and queens: leadership was far away there away from the dusty plains and the plows, the stars of “decisive leadership” and “walking the talk” was left to the likes of Marcus Aurelius and Chandragupta Maurya.

Enter democracy and Industrial Revolution .While the explorer from older days who went to faraway lands to correct fallacies of earth being flat (only for 21^st century to prove the geographically corrected notion into a digitally incorrect one) facing great challenges being heralded as a leader of sorts :nothing gave leadership skills being a mass-product available for review and practice than Industrial Revolution .Professional managers were called for , snap decisions called for and increasingly leadership skills passed on from what the royalty embodied to what the balance sheet champions said in their memoirs and answers to what journalists asked as “Kind sir, what is the secret of your success?” for the consumption of curious millions via newspapers and magazines.

Politicians, long battling a negative image did manage once in a while; by virtue of superior legislation (or PR skills) to enter the Leaders Hall of Fame. Spiritual leaders offered a whole different dimension and who re-defined success in far more holistic ways than mere success in a crisis situation or ability to gather monetary resources using least furrowing of the brow or expenditure of sweat.

Yes, the Age of every man as an aspiring Leader is here, and the footnote to this part of history will surely find a writer some more years down the line.

By: Aby Johnson ( Winner of Leadership Article Contest )