In August of 2008, I wrote the i4 of Leadership, viz., Intensity, Intelligence, Intuitive, Introspective with Integrity as a given. While these are essential ingredients someone has to possess if one aspires to be a leader in one's own right, it is an all new ball game if she/he has to be seen and accepted as one. We are several times admonished for "not showing enough leadership" or spurred on to "take the lead" for something that cries for attention. And history is full of examples of people who have shown tremendous leadership and taken it upon themselves to make a difference and many thousands even sacrificed everything including their lives for the sake of a worthy cause. Nevertheless, history recognizes only a few hundred truly as leaders over the many millennia. Why is it so?
How does one lead in a way that is seen as true leadership and recognized for times immemorial? Is it style? Is it courage or will or the purposiveness in what they did? Is it the strength of their character or the allure of their personalities? Or is it the way they conducted themselves and treated others around them? Or is it simply DNA? Or is it all or many of the above?
Let us quickly look at some truly recognized leaders of our times and see if they possessed any or all of these traits and see if we can piece together what it takes to be seen as a leader….. There were some consummate leaders such as Alexander the Great, Emperor Ashoka, Akbar the Great Moghul, Mahatma Gandhi, Pt. Nehru, Sardar Patel, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, Smt. Indira Gandhi or even infamous ones such as Aurangzeb, Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Tiger Prabhakaran and Josef Stalin. All these people had many of the traits mentioned above. But they also possessed several negative qualities that did not greatly impede their rise through the popularity charts among their respective followers!!! Then what is this conundrum that makes a large body of people accept (even worship) and follow a leader?
It is my sense that we need to look at the A4 of Leadership……. and here goes…….
The first A is for "Accept the agenda", second is "paying Attention", third "Elevate to Another Level" and the final one stands for "empathy Across"
Accept the agenda
The first thing leaders know is that their daily agendas would be set not by them but by a whole host of people or happenings around them. Thus, they have to be ever ready to drop their own personal agendas at any time and plunge into what is set for them by things around them. Does not mean they simply ignore or forget their own agenda or procrastinate. They simply work around or wait for opportune moments to get to it. Somehow leadership boils down sometimes to accepting this simple fact and being tolerant to this "apparent ambiguity or uncertainty" in their lives.
Rama, the hero of the Ramayana epic, while urgently in search of his abducted wife, Sita, is willing to pause for several months to first help Sugreeva win back his kingdom. In this process, he builds a key alliance which later helps him not only to find his wife but also win her back after a pitched battle with Raavan.
True leaders accept the agenda set by others and turn it into an opportunity and a key strength. The world of business is rife with stories of corporate leaders turning adversity (read "their original agendas suddenly being disrupted and a new one set by the external environment, be it regulatory hurdles or other "factors") into a grand opportunity on their way to leadership and the annals of history.
Paying Attention
Leaders have tremendous patience and make time to pay attention to their team members or the people they lead. People arguably are like children and long for the leader's attention. Not paying attention or listening to them erodes a leader's followership over time and his leadership becomes questionable. This happens to all leaders when they decide to withdraw from their main vocation and start to focus on "other" things. We see this in politics, business, corporate world, and wide variety of fields of endeavour. The followers or people they lead don't expect the leader to solve their problems but pretty much want their leaders to listen to what they have to say. Many established leaders therefore spend a lot of their time just listening to people – Mr. Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar is one good example. Active listening followed by simple mirroring of the words by the leader is oftentimes sufficient comfort and joy for people.
Another example is the character Bhuvan (Aamir Khan) in the movie Lagaan. His leadership comes through in his ability to patiently listen and pay attention to a whole host of voices and views from not only members of his team but the people around.
Elevate to Another Level
To be seen as a leader, one needs to elevate oneself to a different level of conduct, standard, thoughts, views and actions that is beyond the mundane or street view of things. In politics, it could be value systems, principles, work ethic, truthfulness and transparency or an all-encompassing inclusive view. In business and corporate life, it would be on ethical standards and being on a different plane on both spirit and the letter of the law. Leaders fall from grace quickly in the eyes of their followers when they are seen flouting even the simplest of standards that they had set for themselves or for others. There is a wonderful aside in Mahabharata where Yudhistira, the clear leader of the Pandavas, slightly bends his strong ethical standards to dupe Dronacharya in the battlefield. Nevertheless, his chariot, that normally rode several inches above the ground owing to his righteousness, falls by a few inches to remind him of his minor misdemeanor (Ref: Mahabharata by Rajaji).
A good example is Coach Kabir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) in the movie Chak De! India. He elevates himself to a different level of passion, standard of excellence before asking his team to rise up to those standards. Of course, he is accepted as a leader by his team only after he exhibits the empathetic side of his personality!! Read on...
Empathy Across
This is the last of the A's but probably the most important. True leaders understand and empathise with people across the spectrum irrespective of who or what they are. With uncanny knack, they understand the other person's problems, tribulations, discomfort or concerns and are able to exhibit a rare sensitivity towards those issues. Thus, they are able to "see" through many eyes and get an overall sense of any particular problem or issue. Needless to say, this helps them to make more informed and considered decisions. Note here that this is very different from paying attention of the previous paragraph. Empathising is relating and goes beyond just listening.
Again Bhuvan of Lagaan stands out.
At work, you are likely to be seen as a clear leader if you empathise with your peers who belong not only to your functional area but across functions and relate to their troubles and support them. Think about that and think of all the fast rising stars in your place of work!
Think of all the leaders you have admired and see if they meet the A4 of leadership. Remember, that leadership is a state of being and an attitude. Hmmm.... is that then the biggest A .......??
How does one lead in a way that is seen as true leadership and recognized for times immemorial? Is it style? Is it courage or will or the purposiveness in what they did? Is it the strength of their character or the allure of their personalities? Or is it the way they conducted themselves and treated others around them? Or is it simply DNA? Or is it all or many of the above?
Let us quickly look at some truly recognized leaders of our times and see if they possessed any or all of these traits and see if we can piece together what it takes to be seen as a leader….. There were some consummate leaders such as Alexander the Great, Emperor Ashoka, Akbar the Great Moghul, Mahatma Gandhi, Pt. Nehru, Sardar Patel, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, Smt. Indira Gandhi or even infamous ones such as Aurangzeb, Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Tiger Prabhakaran and Josef Stalin. All these people had many of the traits mentioned above. But they also possessed several negative qualities that did not greatly impede their rise through the popularity charts among their respective followers!!! Then what is this conundrum that makes a large body of people accept (even worship) and follow a leader?
It is my sense that we need to look at the A4 of Leadership……. and here goes…….
The first A is for "Accept the agenda", second is "paying Attention", third "Elevate to Another Level" and the final one stands for "empathy Across"
Accept the agenda
The first thing leaders know is that their daily agendas would be set not by them but by a whole host of people or happenings around them. Thus, they have to be ever ready to drop their own personal agendas at any time and plunge into what is set for them by things around them. Does not mean they simply ignore or forget their own agenda or procrastinate. They simply work around or wait for opportune moments to get to it. Somehow leadership boils down sometimes to accepting this simple fact and being tolerant to this "apparent ambiguity or uncertainty" in their lives.
Rama, the hero of the Ramayana epic, while urgently in search of his abducted wife, Sita, is willing to pause for several months to first help Sugreeva win back his kingdom. In this process, he builds a key alliance which later helps him not only to find his wife but also win her back after a pitched battle with Raavan.
True leaders accept the agenda set by others and turn it into an opportunity and a key strength. The world of business is rife with stories of corporate leaders turning adversity (read "their original agendas suddenly being disrupted and a new one set by the external environment, be it regulatory hurdles or other "factors") into a grand opportunity on their way to leadership and the annals of history.
Paying Attention
Leaders have tremendous patience and make time to pay attention to their team members or the people they lead. People arguably are like children and long for the leader's attention. Not paying attention or listening to them erodes a leader's followership over time and his leadership becomes questionable. This happens to all leaders when they decide to withdraw from their main vocation and start to focus on "other" things. We see this in politics, business, corporate world, and wide variety of fields of endeavour. The followers or people they lead don't expect the leader to solve their problems but pretty much want their leaders to listen to what they have to say. Many established leaders therefore spend a lot of their time just listening to people – Mr. Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar is one good example. Active listening followed by simple mirroring of the words by the leader is oftentimes sufficient comfort and joy for people.
Another example is the character Bhuvan (Aamir Khan) in the movie Lagaan. His leadership comes through in his ability to patiently listen and pay attention to a whole host of voices and views from not only members of his team but the people around.
Elevate to Another Level
To be seen as a leader, one needs to elevate oneself to a different level of conduct, standard, thoughts, views and actions that is beyond the mundane or street view of things. In politics, it could be value systems, principles, work ethic, truthfulness and transparency or an all-encompassing inclusive view. In business and corporate life, it would be on ethical standards and being on a different plane on both spirit and the letter of the law. Leaders fall from grace quickly in the eyes of their followers when they are seen flouting even the simplest of standards that they had set for themselves or for others. There is a wonderful aside in Mahabharata where Yudhistira, the clear leader of the Pandavas, slightly bends his strong ethical standards to dupe Dronacharya in the battlefield. Nevertheless, his chariot, that normally rode several inches above the ground owing to his righteousness, falls by a few inches to remind him of his minor misdemeanor (Ref: Mahabharata by Rajaji).
A good example is Coach Kabir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) in the movie Chak De! India. He elevates himself to a different level of passion, standard of excellence before asking his team to rise up to those standards. Of course, he is accepted as a leader by his team only after he exhibits the empathetic side of his personality!! Read on...
Empathy Across
This is the last of the A's but probably the most important. True leaders understand and empathise with people across the spectrum irrespective of who or what they are. With uncanny knack, they understand the other person's problems, tribulations, discomfort or concerns and are able to exhibit a rare sensitivity towards those issues. Thus, they are able to "see" through many eyes and get an overall sense of any particular problem or issue. Needless to say, this helps them to make more informed and considered decisions. Note here that this is very different from paying attention of the previous paragraph. Empathising is relating and goes beyond just listening.
Again Bhuvan of Lagaan stands out.
At work, you are likely to be seen as a clear leader if you empathise with your peers who belong not only to your functional area but across functions and relate to their troubles and support them. Think about that and think of all the fast rising stars in your place of work!
Think of all the leaders you have admired and see if they meet the A4 of leadership. Remember, that leadership is a state of being and an attitude. Hmmm.... is that then the biggest A .......??
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