Leadership

With the recent spate of mass movements in several countries, I started thinking about leadership.  Can leadership be learned?  Can it be taught?  The politically correct climate of today demands that we answer those questions resoundingly in the affirmative. The acceptance of the hypothesis that leadership is teachable would imply that each of us is capable of directing the efforts of other people effectively.

If we believe that everyone already has all of the traits necessary for leading, then we must acknowledge that there is a leader lurking within each of us. The emergence of this leader then becomes just a matter of recognizing this innate ability in each individual and giving it permission to flourish.  However, by doing so, we are surely diminishing the inherent capacity of people who have been leaders.

While individual narratives make for powerful case studies, they fail to highlight methods and traits of leadership that are replicable and proven time after time.  Nor can one point to a common, unifying principle that may be considered the holy grail of leadership.  “More than knowledge, leaders need character.  Values and ethics are vitally important”, says Oscar Arias Sanchez.  Think of Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Sathya Sai Baba, and most recently, Anna Hazare.  Do all these people have something in common, and is that commonality of character, values and ethics?  Is it the capacity to love all, even “thy enemy”?  But then what about people like Adolf Hitler, Slobodan Milosevic and Pol Pot, who managed to lead people into committing horrible atrocities on other human beings.  Or people like Rajneesh and Warren Buffett who might have led people to “nirvana” and altruism respectively but certainly cannot claim to be as selfless as the likes of Mother Teresa.  Is it that leaders have consistency of belief?  That cannot be it, since most of us lesser beings end up being labelled stubborn for the trait.  Is it zeal for a cause that is larger than the self that creates a leader?  Not always – all of us know of zealots who have got consigned to the lunatic fringe for their strenuous efforts.

My quest began with searching within myself.  Do I have leadership qualities?  Isn’t it funny – the most natural response expected from me would be “of course I can lead”, but I found that my answer was no.  I am far more comfortable following.  This is not to say that I cannot think for myself; far from it!  I am not in the least afraid of forming my own opinion even if it is contrary to the flavour of the moment.  I am very resilient (the buzzword these days to highlight leadership qualities).  I am able to take charge and act when there is a crisis and something needs to be done.  I am also pretty good at adapting to changed circumstances.

But can leadership simply be about being open to, and exploiting, opportunities; understanding and maximising what we’re good at; or is it about selling an idea? What I do not possess is the ability to influence people. 

John C Maxwell defined a leader as “one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way”.   If your actions inspire others to believe in you, dream big, and do more, you are a leader.  Ideally, it should be for universal good.  Sadly, that is not always the case!  Sometimes the big dream can be as dangerous and vicious as ethnic cleansing.