Posts Tagged ‘leadership’
There is something good in everyone
Posted by: Manas in Development, Misc, social on February 17th, 2009
I recently got to know that in my daughter’s school, all teachers have an interesting annual target. The target is that at the end of the year, every child in the class must receive “Certificate of Excellence” for at least one area. The belief is that every child is good in at least one thing. If the teacher doesn’t find anything good in a child, she isn’t looking hard enough. So, a teacher must find something good in each child and then help the child develop it.
something good in everyone
I was so amused by the thought and compared it with the corporate culture of our times. In fact, I shouldn’t call it culture as there is nothing cultural about it. Anyways, …
So, I was wondering if there be a company in which every manager has a similar performance goal in additional to all the regular ones like meeting deadlines, achieving sales targets etc. Each manager must identify at least one area for each direct reportee where that person can excel. And then through the year, help that person demonstrate his potential in the chosen area.
And this can be completely unrelated to the work for which that person has been hired. If someone is good at painting, there can be an exhibition where he/she can show his/her talent in the whole department or the whole office building. If someone is good at organizing hiking trips, some outbound trip is planned where he/she is incharge. If someone is good at singing, there can be informal singing sessions past working hours.
These are just examples. The skills and the way they are brought out can be different. Even making it part of the performance goals is an example. A company can choose its own method of implementing it. The important thing is the belief that there is something good in everyone.
Won’t that company have a lower attrition rate and higher productivity?
Won’t more and more people want to work in that company making it easier to attract people?
Will you not like to work for such a company? Will you not like to build such a company?
The earlier you start, the easier it will be.
Start now…
Leader’s fall from grace: From Belief To Pride
From the book “One Hundred Years of Solitude”
One night, Army General Aureliano asked Colonel Gerineldo Marquez:
“Tell me something, old friend: why are you fighting?”
“What other reason could there be, old friend?” Colonel Gerineldo Marquez answered. “For the great Liberal Party.”
“You’re lucky you know,” he answered. “As far as I’m concerned, I’ve only just realized that I am fighting out of pride.”
How many times has it happened with you that you took up a project or a challenge because you believed in a cause but ended up just fighting for your pride?
Be it a college election where you start out with a dream to improve faculty-student relations but you end up fighting with the focus that you don’t want to be a loser.
Or you may start a venture now because you believe that your idea can impact the world in a positive way but you end up dragging it along because you don’t want to accept defeat.
Or you may take up an assignment in your company because it will make your product better. But as you struggle with the inertia of other teams, you take it onto your pride to see the assignment through.
Examples are plenty, the net result is one. You start something because you believe in the cause and you just end up fighting out of your pride.
Why? Because as a leader, you struggle with several opposing forces. As an agent of change, you’ll face resistance, offense, and insult. People will come and praise you which will bloat your ego. People will also come and offend you which will hurt your ego. At times, you’ll try to move things and they’ll move, bloating your ego. And at other times, you’ll try to move things and they’ll not move, leaving you frustrated.
When things oscillate between appeasing your ego to hurting your ego, you develop a sense of higher self-esteem as well as a strong urge to protect it at all costs. Well, there you go. You started with the goal of making the world a better place and ended up with a self-centered life.
But fighting for your pride will not take you far. People will not support you. People don’t support leaders. People support a cause, a belief, a dream.
People didn’t support Mahatama Gandhi, they supported movement for independence; they supported method of non-violence. Imagine Gandhi fasting for several days not because he believed atrocities on the poor must be stopped; but because he was up against the district magistrate and wanted to teach him a lesson. Would he have got the support from people they way he did? No. People wouldn’t have even noticed him. Or would’ve laughed at him.
What made the difference for Gandhi? The fact that he was just fighting for the cause and not for his pride.
So, as a leader, stay focused on the cause. If you stop believing in it, just quit and walk away. There is no point in fighting for the pride. You’ll fail anyways…
Leaders always lead, followers may not always follow
I had mentioned sometime back that Leadership is Situational. The same person who is accepted as a leader at one time is rejected at some other time. I used the examples of Alexander, Mahatama Gandhi and Churchill.
Now, the questions arises, Leaders are always the same, well, leader-like. So, how come leadership becomes situational? How come a person is leader in one situation and not in another situation?
The people who are leader-like (i.e. the ones taking the lead) are always leader-like (i.e. they always take the lead). However, people may not follow them all the time. In India, at the point of time, so many people are trying to take the lead towards better governance but how many followers have they got? They are still leader-like but there are no followers for them.
Tomorrow, when people are just too fed up with the current state of governance (as much as that they decide to take some “real” action), the same set of leaders (social-activists as they are called) will emerge as leaders.
Leadership is Situational
Leader is a person who has followers - Peter Drucker
via Wikipedia
Let’s take an example. Alexander? He was a leader right? A good one? He conquered most of the land known to the Greeks of that time. Starting from Greek, he led his army all the way to heart of India.
But what happened when he was preparing for a fight with Nanda for Magadha? His army refused. And he couldn’t convince his army to fight. What did he do then? He left for home.
via Wikipedia
Another example - Mahatama Gandhi. He was at the forefront of India’s movement for Independence. What happened after the independence? He was not a leader anymore. People started turning away from him. And one day, someone assassinated him because he was considered a “hindrance” in the progress of India.
Another example? Ok, last one. Churchill? Led British Army to victory in World War 2. After the war, Churchill told a huge crowd in Whitehall: “This is your victory.” The people shouted: “No, it is yours”. And what happened in the elections afterwards? He lost. Leader?
So, as we can see, all these people who are among the greatest leaders of all times did not have followers all the time. Even though they were still the same people all along, what really made them leaders and what took away the leadership position was the “time”.
There are several attributes that people tend to assign to leaders - tenacious, determined, leads from the front, thinker, etc etc etc. But the most important attribute of a leader is that he or she represents the aspirations of the people of that time. When aspirations change, leaders change.
As long as the Greek army was driven by a passion to conquer, Alexander served their purpose fine. But when the army got bored of fighting and wanted to go back home, he couldn’t move the army even by a couple of inches.
As long as people of India wanted self-governance, Gandhi looked like a leader to them. However, when self-governance was achieved, he was seen as a hindrance.
Churchill? Chief reason for his losing election was a desire for post-war reform was widespread amongst the population and that the man who had led Britain in war was not seen as the man to lead the nation in peace.
Conclusion? Leaders do show some attributes like tenacity, clear thinking, etc etc. But the most important thing is that leaders represent the aspirations of the followers and they inspire a belief in the followers that all their aspirations will get fulfilled through him/her.
RSS