Most of us have the desire to lead at least a few people and this entails overcoming different problems and taking a step beyond. Leadership requires the knowledge to understand what it entails, the training to perform day-to-day activities required of a leader and sound formation of experiences upon which to base our future designs. Leadership is the art of influencing and directing people in such a way as to obtain their willing obedience, confidence, respect and cooperation. A person who has people working under him is a true leader of the people.
Leadership responsibilities include accomplishment of organisational objectives and welfare of the organisation’s personnel. You don’t have to be a genius to be a leader. It thus entails a combination of skills and observable behaviour that can be developed. Common sense and experience tell us that truly effective leaders combine supervisory, managerial and leadership skills to extract the best from their people and from themselves. Supervisors, managers and leaders share some of the same tasks but the way they perform them, the way they treat people, distinguishes leaders from the rest.
For instance, supervisors supervise and managers control but leaders create commitment and play a major role in times of chaos, crisis or change. While supervisors and managers cover more technical aspects of business, such as getting the basics done, leaders are people with inspiration and vision. This reminds one of what Henry Ford said, “Living together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
A good leader has some inherent qualities and some he or she develops. Some of these include mastering the basics, learning from the past, acquiring knowledge, developing a varied background, gaining experience, staying up-to-date, sharing and obtaining information from all sources, being a good public speaker, conducting research, winning respect and loyalty, developing confidence and a sense of humour.
The prime attributes of a leader are courage, dependable behaviour, tact, unselfishness, humility, optimism, creativity, confidence, energy, intelligence, honesty, consistency, loyalty, maturity, sincerity, adaptability, tenacity, personality, fairness and patience.
A leader supervises what his subordinates do. He or she does what told willingly and pursues goals and objectives of the organisation or state or country. A good leader recognises good work and gives positive reinforcement and constructive feedback. He encourages cooperation, expects high yield, gets people involved, pulls up poor performers, manages conflicts, cares about employees, supervises subordinates, builds up a team, encourages and respects juniors, teaches when required and is easily accessible.
A good leader manages by thinking multifacetedly, using good judgement, making decisions, diagnosing well, handling frustrations and stress, having a sense of direction, simplifying complex situations, looking ahead, expediting, keeping life in balance, reviewing effective meetings, asking for inputs and communicating well.
Leadership in short is reaching for stars and when he or she reaches one, he tries to reach the next one. This is the essence of a leader’s life.
(Macmillan Publishers India Ltd, 2/10, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110 001.)
