The Art & Science of Leadership

Leadership – Effective leadership…..How to be a good leader??? What is a leader without his/her followers?? Can this quality be developed or is there something called “born leader”????? I have answers… I assume I know the key which I am in process of practicing…..I believe people need success stories of REAL people before they believe you…. you need to give them examples…..or you can even choose to LEAD by examples. I chose to lead by example… but if I share it after I am myself a success story.. it would be too late…. Isn’t it ?? Hence I thought it would be better if I make people know certain things from my ongoing experiences and in turn learn from them.. thru their comments.

You need to know some background beforehand right. So here’s the brief - I am heading a Department. I am just 24 … and there are people in my organization…. in fact in my department with more than this number of experience…..I head them… I am supposed to lead them… I am their leader by virtue of my position… Authority flows from my position… I wanted to be a leader…. I had no time for self assessment…. There was no meaning of any self assessment….. I din’t know whether I can lead …. But somebody had known had believed…. I have got a chance why waste it…..

I am trying to inculcate few principles to do it…… You might not find flow at this stage…. Just let me randomly put it down…. Bear with me….

First thing you need to know is you need to grow to be a leader…. how can you grow??? When u help people under you grow??? Avoid stagnancy….. at all points of time have a definitive goal … add something innovative informative even if it is to their routine tasks … may be making it simpler without compromising on the quality of reporting…. So that they have extra time…and you help them learn some other person’s work as well….. have a vision to accomplish the goal….. and communicate the whole thing to them… so at all points of time they are part of the process……

Your team / department must look up to you…. you have to be knowledgeable…. Only qualification doesn’t help…. I am a Chartered Accountant…. Only this doesn’t help… I need to forever keep pace with the ever dynamic ever changing surroundings….. help them in finding solutions…. you have to be well read…… try and be some source of information to them….. share your knowledge with them to the extent possible…. Remove insecurity from your system so that you can remove it from theirs.

It is how you connect with people… respect people…. they should feel protected when they are working under you…. you have to be the ozone layer…. protect them from ultraviolet rays of sun in form of office politics etc., taking responsibility of their actions, maintaining balance…. these are very preliminary principles though …

Art of decision making and taking responsibility for your decisions… is one very important trait that you need to develop to be a leader….

To be continued.......