My Take on Leadership
Musings on Leadership
The first and most important is courage. If you don't have courage, you are never going to be a good leader, whatever your other qualifications are. The courage must extend down as well as up. Courage should not be mislabeled loyalty. Although loyalty is a requirement, courage is even more of a requirement.
Second, you must be totally honest. Your integrity must be beyond question at any time of the day or night.
Third, you have to have the ability to see beyond tomorrow. I have met so people who couldn't see anything but what they were looking for tomorrow.
Fourth, we hear a lot about motivation. It's a buzz word. Motivation I think is in final analysis isn’t just one’s ability to get others to do as you wish them to do. What is important is to must change their attitude before you motivate. It's attitude that's the key; then motivation will follow. If you get the attitude right, and the problems will take care of themselves because the people are motivated.
Fifth, never lose control of yourself(Emotional stability); never raise your voice; never let the situation control you. Even though it appears to be out of hand, you must always be doing something to change the situation if you don't like it. You must never resign yourself to “Chalta hai” attitude or “that is the system and that's how it works.” That attitude of resignation will defeat you and defeat your people. You must always be attempting to influence the situation.
Next, you must at least have a working knowledge of what your people are doing. You are not expected to be an expert welder or an expert aircraft technician or an expert cook, but you have got to know something about all those jobs so that you can discuss them intelligently. You have to discuss them on a personal basis: "What are you doing? Tell me what you are doing and how you are doing it." Let that individual speak to you. You have got to let him know you are interested in what he is doing. You have got to let him know you know a little bit about it but you want to know more because you are interested in it and it is contributing to the mission. And if possible, learn something about him. If you have worked with a group of people for six months and you don't know something personal about each individual, you are no leader, and you are no commander. It has to be a sincere interest.
Finally, and the most obvious, you must do what you preach. If you preach honesty and morality and good conduct and whatever else you preach, such as getting the job done to the best of your ability and getting it done right the first time, that's the way you must live, because if you don't you won't get what you want from your subordinates. You have to be the shining example, and you must never fail. It is easy to be a leader and a commander from seven in the morning until five o'clock in the evening. From five in the afternoon until seven in the morning is when it is tough to be a commander. That's when you have to get out of bed and go get somebody out of jail. That's when the crises come up and you have to function like you have just had 24 hours of sleep and you are perfectly rested and perfectly in control of the situation. You have got to be a leader and a commander 24X7.
I say this because I have tried to use these guidelines for being a leader. In the process I gained some and I lost some. But in the overall analysis I ain’t done too badly either. While this might basically be military oriented way of functioning, it holds good for all spheres of life. The bottom line is gaining the trust and of the people you command and earning respect 360 degrees.
There are some issues I thought I should address the qualities that I think are necessary in order to be a good leader.
The first and most important is courage. If you don't have courage, you are never going to be a good leader, whatever your other qualifications are. The courage must extend down as well as up. Courage should not be mislabeled loyalty. Although loyalty is a requirement, courage is even more of a requirement.
Second, you must be totally honest. Your integrity must be beyond question at any time of the day or night.
Third, you have to have the ability to see beyond tomorrow. I have met so people who couldn't see anything but what they were looking for tomorrow.
Fourth, we hear a lot about motivation. It's a buzz word. Motivation I think is in final analysis isn’t just one’s ability to get others to do as you wish them to do. What is important is to must change their attitude before you motivate. It's attitude that's the key; then motivation will follow. If you get the attitude right, and the problems will take care of themselves because the people are motivated.
Fifth, never lose control of yourself(Emotional stability); never raise your voice; never let the situation control you. Even though it appears to be out of hand, you must always be doing something to change the situation if you don't like it. You must never resign yourself to “Chalta hai” attitude or “that is the system and that's how it works.” That attitude of resignation will defeat you and defeat your people. You must always be attempting to influence the situation.
Next, you must at least have a working knowledge of what your people are doing. You are not expected to be an expert welder or an expert aircraft technician or an expert cook, but you have got to know something about all those jobs so that you can discuss them intelligently. You have to discuss them on a personal basis: "What are you doing? Tell me what you are doing and how you are doing it." Let that individual speak to you. You have got to let him know you are interested in what he is doing. You have got to let him know you know a little bit about it but you want to know more because you are interested in it and it is contributing to the mission. And if possible, learn something about him. If you have worked with a group of people for six months and you don't know something personal about each individual, you are no leader, and you are no commander. It has to be a sincere interest.
Finally, and the most obvious, you must do what you preach. If you preach honesty and morality and good conduct and whatever else you preach, such as getting the job done to the best of your ability and getting it done right the first time, that's the way you must live, because if you don't you won't get what you want from your subordinates. You have to be the shining example, and you must never fail. It is easy to be a leader and a commander from seven in the morning until five o'clock in the evening. From five in the afternoon until seven in the morning is when it is tough to be a commander. That's when you have to get out of bed and go get somebody out of jail. That's when the crises come up and you have to function like you have just had 24 hours of sleep and you are perfectly rested and perfectly in control of the situation. You have got to be a leader and a commander 24X7.
I say this because I have tried to use these guidelines for being a leader. In the process I gained some and I lost some. But in the overall analysis I ain’t done too badly either. While this might basically be military oriented way of functioning, it holds good for all spheres of life. The bottom line is gaining the trust and of the people you command and earning respect 360 degrees.
posted by Beyond Doctorate at 6:34 pm
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