What is a LEADER?

 

I believe all of us have a “leader” within ourselves. It’s just a matter of knowing and improving on those leadership traits. If you know how to lead yourself, you can lead others as well. During last session with my team, I raised the topic about leader and leadership qualities. We had a good discussion on that. However, I couldn’t go into more details around it, due to lack of time. So, thought to share my views here.

 

Since my childhood, I have been learning and studying a lot on this topic. I grew up seeing the red flag with a tiger in the centre – the flag of Forward Bloc party founded by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. He inspires me a lot. My close friends think that there is a rebel within me too. But, let’s not discuss that now J. Fortunately, I did my schooling from Sainik School, which also provided me an environment where one has to come across this subject everyday.

 

Well, talking about the leaders, everyone has someone as their favourite leader. If we closely observe, there are common leadership qualities in them that have made them what they are!!

Let’s start with defining the term “Leader”. Few common definitions are:

• A leader is one who goes first and leads by example, so that others are motivated to follow him.
• A leader is one who has followers.
• A leader is a person who is willing to take on those responsibilities not for the glory of it, but the mud that comes with it as well. and so on.....................

One of the simplest and complete definition of Leader, which I came across is – “A leader is a person who influences a group of people towards achievement of a common goal”. It can be illustrated as 3 P’s: Person, People and Purpose - Person committed to a purpose, influences people in order to achieve the purpose.

A leader is not the boss of a team, instead, the person who is committed to carry out the mission of the venture.

One common topic in group discussions during my SSB (Service Selection Board) days used to be – Whether leaders are born or are they made?

Interesting question, isn’t it?? Just think about it…Some people will argue that leaders are not born, they are made. But in my opinion, it’s true both ways!! Some people possess leadership qualities since birth and some develop it in course of time.

Let’s have a look on some key qualities / traits which you as a good leader should possess:

Listening - Your team members may have a great way to improve your idea. By keeping your mind open to other ideas, you can come up with new ways to accomplish your goals. It is your job to make sure that everyone in the group is being heard. Listen to their ideas and accept their constructive criticisms. A leader should be a good listener.

Woodrow Wilson has rightly said that “The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people”.

Empowerment - Some people like the idea of seeking approval for every minor step; that way if something goes wrong, they have someone to blame. Some people have not built up enough self-confidence to handle situations. Some leaders fear they will look unqualified, weak or indecisive if they seek input from other members. And sometimes leaders - for their own reasons - just don't feel comfortable relinquishing control to others no matter how much they trust them.

Empowerment helps in building self-confidence and increasing motivation in the team members, giving them a chance to learn leadership skills; thus making more leaders and helping the overall organization.

It is important to note that there is no single ‘right way’ to empower others. If you have noticed, one of you had chaired the “team meeting” last week and going forward everyone will get this chance.

This is my way J

Availability - As a leader, you are responsible for a lot and you are probably going to be very busy at times. However, you still need to find time to talk with your team. A good way to do this is to set frequent group meetings, so that no question or concern goes too long without attention.

Decisive - Although an important part of being a leader involves listening to the people around you, remember that you are not always going to be able to reach a compromise. When this happens, don’t be afraid to make the final decision, even if some team members disagree with you.

Empathy - Empathy is perhaps the most important leadership skill that involves your relationship with others.  Empathy is the leader's ability to understand the other person's point of view.  Many believe that sympathy is the same skill as empathy - it's not.

Empathy is your ability to truly put yourself in the other person's shoes and understand how they are feeling.  It's the ability to understand the impact change can have on someone else, and taking their feelings into consideration before making a change.

Respect - Respect and leadership go together. You can't have one without the other. Therefore, it is important to know how to gain respect and to maintain morale with good leadership skills. To me, Respect is earned. It is not given freely. Leading by example, giving respect, making people accountable and maintaining the work environment conducive to the team are the ways one can gain respect.

With respect you can get others to follow you. Getting people to follow you willingly is a key point to leadership. Leaders who know how to give the utmost respect will get much more loyalty and performance from employees.

These are just the key qualities. A good leader should also be honest, focused, co-operative, organized, innovative, straightforward, courageous and confident.

“Charismatic leadership” is a term that involves creating a self-image so powerful that people are naturally drawn to you. It is mostly natural. Charismatic leaders pay much attention to the person they are talking to at any one moment, making that person feel like they are, for that time, the most important person in the world. Something for us to think about….

LEADER vs. MANAGER

Some people believe that there is no difference between a leader and a manager.

In fact, there is. Warren Bennis says “Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing.” The difference may be summarized as activities of vision and judgment – effectiveness versus activities of mastering routines - efficiency. Given below is the chart suggested by Bennis in 1989, to indicate distinction between two equally important functions:

Managers	Leaders
Administer and copy	Innovation and originality
Maintain	Develop
Focus on system & structure	Focus on people
Rely on control	Inspire trust
Short-range view – bottom line	Long-range  view – the horizon
Ask how and when	Ask what and why
Accept the status quo	Challenge the status quo
Classic good soldier	Own person
Planning and Budgeting	Setting a Direction
Organizing and Staffing	Aligning People
Do things right	Do the right things

Ideally, managers need to be leaders as their workers need vision and guidance! On the other hand, leaders need to be good managers of the resources entrusted to them.

John Calvin Maxwell is an author and speaker who has written more than 50 books, primarily focusing on leadership. There is lot to be learnt from his knowledge and experiences. Also, you should go ahead and learn about “Situational Leadership” model developed by Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey. May be I could cover this model in my next post. That’s it for today.

Cheers!!