Leader - A genius with a thousand helpers.

It's been more than 2 years I've been trying to understand what's leader or what's leadership.

Show leadership abilities, become a leader, think like a leader, work like a leader, are all the terms I've listened atleast once in the near past.

We are often given examples of politicians, ceo's, sportspersons and writers. But it's still unclear as the definitions is not itself clearly defined in examples. 

I came across a poster a "Leadership is when people obey you when you're not obliged."

Another statement I often come across are "Leaders are born not made"

There is also another statement, which says "Leadership is the consistency of practice which are denoted as examples.

It's still unclear as to what's leader or leadership is.

Let's ask Google, it defines "a group or I individual who can lead or influence a group."

It's a deeper meaning which implies to what Google has said.

Leading a team and influence are some of the biggest skills that every person should have and pursue to be skilled in it.

For a better understanding lets look at some examples....

Case 1

In a family of 6 people headed by a mother who vests her responsibility on her eldest son.

Unfortunately their father is dead very early on, but the eldest son managed to bring the best lifestyle to all the family members and support each brother in finding employment. Ultimately the elder brother gets married and moves away to focus on his own family after marriage.

The responsibility now gets vested with the second eldest brother who takes care of every person in family like his own children.

Learning from his eldest brother mistakes and also looking at the market he realised that if everyone of the family members moves away the similar way like eldest brother it'll be very difficult for the youngest 2 brothers to live and earn and also to keep caring for her mother too.

Even after marriage he doesn't get rid of this responsibility with respect to his bros and works towards a greater good for his entire family and educates them for better future too. He learns from others and analyses the nuances of the family.

Even after the education of their younger bros they still oblige to elder brother, seek ideas from him, learn his perspective and start working.

The point I want to make with this story is that, irrespective of the person attributes like education, family background and role he was still respected and obeyed not because he was elder brother but for the fact that he led them through the difficult time, support entire family by bringing them together,.

So leader doesn't have to be educated to become a leader he needs to have a great mindset of bringing people together and work towards betterment of the family like in this case.

Case 2

In a given office environment, where 2 subordinate work one is manager and other one is his reportee.

It's obvious that the designations like manager, sr manager eyc demand/command respect, at the same time people often do not respect the person itself. Might be due to many reasons his behaviour, his relationship with other people in office, his work style, his email replies too etc many things come up for a person who's designation is respected but not his personality.

At the sametime, his reportee is respected widely in the whole organization, people praise his wisdom, his work, his behaviour and more importantly what people like is his enthusiasm the way he works which everyone finds a learning in every activity he does.

The reportee is deemed to maintain relationships with people across organization as his work is related to people, he being his manager's reportee he has to work his ass off and gain that level of intelligence to match his thoughts to that of the manager and support other colleagues too his best capacity.

Here the point to be highlighted is, neither designation or the experience makes anyone a leader, things which are qualitative in terms if behaviour, relationship and authority of persuasion fits well with the organisation employees whom he supports without expecting anything in return.

Leader is neither a manager or an experienced person he needs to have big heart to help others, and expect nothing in return.

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins specified one of reasons for companies shifting from good to great is the leaders who are leading the organization. 

He says leaders who are visionary, bold, and have right direction for the companies to drive with empathy tend to have more followers.

Case 3 

In a given company where  there are so many issues which effect the daily operations and hence affect the company sales and performance. Amidst all this a CEO is tasked with the responsibility of bringing its market authority back and also to yield sales. The CEO without any hesitation and a deep thought takes up the responsibility, tends to bring that company to the top which we today know as Intel and the person is Andrew Grove.

He joined Intel at a time when it's stock was declining, sales plummeted, Market value erasing rapidly and running out of cash quickly.

Considering the situation he built a vision and communicated to each person in the organization. He made sure to meet each and every person in the organization across world, meet them, get to listen their problems, discuss their challenges and their ideas and know what process/product they are working and how they can improve it, bringing in more rubusy atmosphere where people think about growth. He writes in his book High Output Management.

Andrew Grove happens to be that leader who turnaround the company from almost a closure to the top semiconductor company today. He principles form to be the basis of management in everyday operations. His book is the Bible for managers and you wouldn't get tired reading it again and again yet gain new perspectives.

All in all leaders are people who are exceptionally versatile, who are definitely different from the crowd. 

They provide much needed direction to the situation, handle situation better way, find solutions to the problems even if they don't know about it, are forward thinkers, who are optimistic about everything, find and create opportunities, for them their team members are everything, he/she doesn't have to followup with their teammates for updates yet they command respect naturally but don't ask for it, we'll being and overall development of their team is priority for them, they are always available during difficult times for people, try something new, have a logical and reasonable approach, they lead from the front.

Although I'm not a leader though but I've been experiencing leadership and also learning from leaders who I meet now and then and this blog is a clear analysis if them.

This may seem a little simple definition of leadership to experience, but these qualities hold a lot of value in every context be it with your girlfriend, your partner, your boss, your team, your colleagues, your parents, your brothers, your friends and even your competitors.

I always give example of Captain America who is very much confident of himself with a 'never give up' attitude which I too follow religiously but more than himself he's confident of his team and more importantly his skills he's confident of his skills which he knows will helped him win and even face the mighty Thanos all alone and the plus point as he's a leader who's also worthy of holding Thor's hammer too. Meaning leaders possess an attitude which works for them naturally.

Becoming leader is easy, pursuing leadership is hard.

And yes 'Never give up', on anything be it your partner, your dreams, on your partner's dream, your skills, your confidence and yes on your parents too, if got a team never give up on them too.

Yes leadership is about vision. But leadership is equally about creating a climate where the truth is heard and the brutal facts confronted. There's a huge difference between the opportunity to "have your say" and the opportunity to be heard. The good-to-great leaders understood this distinction, creating a culture wherein people had a tremendous opportunity to be heard and ultimately for the truth to be heard.

Leadership need not be exercised or implemented in just office or workplace, but it can be exercised everywhere even in your relationships, with your partner, your conversation, your work, your parents and even in building rapport with new people.

Often leadership is not about size, it's about knowledge and wisdom. In this complex world the more information you've that much powerful mighty you'll be.

Jack Welch the famous CEO of GE who transformed the company said "when you were made a leader you weren't given a crown, you were you were given responsibility of bringing out the best in others."

It's true leaders are born, not made.