Leadership is the most talked and written about subject in various disciplines. There are various models available on the topic. A lot of theoretical material is also available on its types, etc. However, I have observed some of the important competencies (a set of behavioral qualities) in a successful leader which I can share with you. I also feel that knowledge is not sufficient nor skill is very important to become a good leader. It requires commitment to some behavior factors which can convert a normal person into a successful leader. No one is born leader nor is it a rare competency. It is also not necessary that one must be on the top or powerful to become a leader. Similarly, it is also not necessary that he/she must be charismatic. Only important is that one should be ready and committed to improve and possess some competencies. He must imbibe certain good behavioral qualities into his/ her attitude. He/she must change his/ her attitude towards himself/ herself as well as towards others. He/she must have clear vision, mission and strategic goals and must be committed to achieve them. If one is truly committed to one’s goals, he can be successful and effective leader of himself/ herself and others. I feel that without becoming a leader of self, one can not become a leader of others. Some of the critical success factors are enumerated below:
- Personal factors:
i. Aggressive insight: committed to a continuous process of self development- self awareness and renewal.
ii. Confident humility: being confident, yet humble enough to listen and learn from others.
iii. Authentic flexibility: understanding others and accept others behavior without compromising with your own.
iv. Reflective decisiveness: balancing thoughtful consideration of all options by acting forcefully and boldly.
v. Realistic optimism: envisioning a better future while acknowledging the constraints of current realities.
vi. Not re-active but pro-active: Pro-active people are driven by values- carefully thought about, selected and internalized values. They do not blame circumstances, conditions etc. for their behavior. They live in present and don't blame past as an excuse for their life’s conditions today. They actively involve in the present-taking charge of current lives and rejecting the self-limiting beliefs of the past. Their behavior is a product of their own conscience choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feelings. They do not affect by physical environment. If weather is good, they feel good and if it is not, it does not affect their attitude and performance. They carry their own weather with them. Whether it rains or shines makes no difference to them. Pro-active person is value driven; and if his value is to produce good quality work, it is not a function of whether the weather is conducive to or not. They are not ruled by social weather also. Some people feel well when other treats them well; when people don't, they become defensive or protective. But such thing is not there with successful leaders.
vii. Not to be afraid of failures:
Failing is a fact of life, a necessary part of the process that no one can escape. It is not whether we fail that maters; it's how we fail. When Edition was looking for ways to keep a light-bulb burning, he tried more than one thousand different combinations of materials that flopped. He had successfully identified over one thousand ways that did not work and that each attempt brought him closer to the one that would. Einstein said," I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right." Both of them failed many times but were considered as genius by us. Why? Because they knew that failing is a natural outcome of making attempts. Success rarely comes on the first attempt. Success comes only as the result of time, determination, and prolonged effort. One can learn from failure- humility, opportunity to try again to right way, strength of character, perseverance and survival despite defeat. If one’s attempt proves a failure, one should be prepared to face the consequences of one’s actions. One can also grow with an experience of failure. At least one can learn not to repeat the same mistake.
Success is more than making money. "Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is in the doing, not the getting- in the trying, not the triumph"- Wynn Davis. Money can not buy happiness. Even after achieving financial goals, the life is empty and meaningless because money, property, power and status are not the same as success. Accept life as it is, with all its difficulties and challenges. Accept responsibilities for our own lives instead of blaming or making excuses. Make the most out of it, in spite of its negative elements, no matter what the circumstances. Maintain a positive attitude toward life. Look good in others and in the world. See life as a series of opportunities and possibilities, and always explore them. Successful people build good relationships. They love others and subdue thoughts of hatred and anger. They are sensitive to the needs and feelings of others. They have a way of bringing out the best in other people. They never feel jealous. They set goals and accomplish them. They are action-oriented. They don't waste time in unproductive aimless activities. They accept and enjoy challenges. They have strong desire to learn. They see learning as a joy. They are always discovering, always growing. Be true and straight forward and open is their policy. They maintain high standards in their personal conduct- truthful and honesty.
Life does not always work the way we would like it to. The world will not devote itself to making us happy. Life is hard. It is not always fair. Our real success in life will be largely determined by how well we deal with adversity. We live in an imperfect world with other imperfect people. No one can promise us lives free from pain or disappointment. Nor can anyone promise us safety. But we are not alone. Every living person shares the same predicament. The people who succeed in life don't escape unfairness. They just learn to accept it and manage it more constructively.
Never think anything impossible because we can't accomplish it. We may learn the thing which is not known. We may develop the skill which we do not have. Refuse to ever use the term failure again. Start deliberately pursuing activities in which you have previously shown little or no aptitude. Positive thinking has to be accompanied with genuine belief. Our behavior is formed through habit. We first make our habits, and then our habits make us. We are not born with any of them. We learn them, just as we learn our attitudes. The successful leaders develop over time and are reinforced through repetition.
Too many people are seduced by what one calls outward success. People looked for quicker ways to acquire material wealth. They attain it but still end up feeling empty. They learned methods by which to obtain things but did not develop the principles and habits that result in feelings of self-worth and fulfillment.
viii. Be honest:
Dishonest behavior is at the root of most of our psychological problems. It is a vicious circle. One dishonest act leads to another. Rarely does a person lie, cheat, or steal -one time. If something is gained from it, the temptation to do it again is almost irresistible. Then there is a need to cover the trail, and another dishonest act is used to do it. If the process continues, dishonesty becomes almost a way of life. In other words, a bad habit is the worst one of all. Dishonesty turns us into phonies and manipulators. Is not it true that we usually know when someone is lying to us? People tip themselves off. Their words say one thing, but their bodies say another. And we pick up the signals. The same must be true when we lie. Other people are picking up the same signals. We are fooling no one but ourselves. In the process, we damage our reputations and destroy our credibility. When we lie to other people, we make it hard for them to believe us in the future. Violating the trust of another person is a sure way of damaging a relationship. And it's more difficult to restore one than it is to form one. Without trust, good relationships are impossible. Deceit has a powerful psychological effect. The manipulative part of us is literally assaulting our vital center. A false intention places an enormous stress on the body's nervous systems. We literally stir up inner turmoil when we are dishonest. In essence, we punish ourselves. If we are selfish and dishonest, we prevent ourselves from knowing what it feels like to be complete. We can never experience the satisfaction of being authentic human beings. This is the worst punishment of all. Therefore, we should adopt good values-honesty, integrity, humility, fidelity, modesty, patience, simplicity, temperance, courage etc.
ix. Never be unhappy:
Be joyful. Joy is a fruit of the inner-self. Cultivate your sense of humor: allow that inner child to express itself in fun ways. Don't be serious. Make a conscious effort to laugh more often. If you laugh, other will also laugh but if you weep other will not weep. Lighten up. More you detach from self-importance, the more fun you will attract. Send love deliberately to each person you encounter, regardless of how it is received by others. Spread a smile around. Life may be hard and at times unfair, but that doesn't mean it has to be intolerable. And it certainly does mean that we can't enjoy it. Humor is what helps the most. Humor and play break the tension. It is what we did so often as children and too often forget to do later in life. Laughter should become a high priority in our lives. We should laugh at ourselves. People who know how to laugh at themselves will never cease to be entertained.
x. No man is an island:
The fact is that quality of life is, by nature, interdependent. Even the fulfillment of our fundamental needs and capacities is interdependent. No one individual has all the talents, all the ideas, all the capacities to perform the functions of the whole. Vital to quality of life is the ability to work together, learn from each other, and help each other grow. You are not master of everything. Accept it and take the help of specialists. Promote team-spirit. Develop relationship and enrich your emotional bank-balance. It is illusion that personal gain is made up of crushing others.
xi. Keep fit:
i. Physically: Our body is like a temple where our Self lives in. Without being physically fit, we cannot do anything great. We can keep ourselves fit by walking and also by doing a little bit of exercise, regularly. Yoga is also helpful for keeping us fit. It is also required to take balance diet and to say good-bye to alcohol, tobacco and other addictions. After the age of 45 years, it is also necessary to be careful about excess intake of oil, sugar and salt in our diet.
ii. Mentally: We can keep our mind sound by meditating daily at least half an hour. The most common practice of meditation is observation of breath entering and leaving the body. The practice is to sit and let our heart become still and concentrated and then to use that concentration to examine the nature of the mind and body. The mind is like an unbridled wild horse, keeping our lives in chaos, leading us into terrible predicaments. When the reins of concentration are loose, we flail in all directions and bring great suffering to ourselves. In the beginning these reins are hard to seize. With effort, however, we can get a grip on them and ultimately tighten them. The wild horse's nature will not change- even when it is reined in, we must be firm. As our attention strengthens, we reach a deeper understanding of life. Then the horse becomes our best friend. Meditation is a method for restraining the natural turbulence of thoughts. It gives us peace and promotes concentration. The key to success in strengthening concentration is continuous practice. By meditation we can make our mind powerful and use it in achieving our goals.
xii. Achieve goals:
It is impossible to advance properly in life without setting reasonable goals. We should specify our goals in term of personal growth, education, career, income, family, health etc. We may assign a timeline to the goals. Planning and programming are necessary to get us to our goal. But we should remember that plans are only dreams without actions. We must act. There is no substitute for hard work. If we are unwilling to work hard for distinction, we must be ready for a lifetime of mediocrity.
With added self-discipline we can go even farther. Successful leaders don't find time- they make time. Time is life. It is irreversible and irreplaceable. To waste our time is to waste our life, but to master our time is to master our life and make the most of it. Useless life is far worse than an early death. We were not created for a life of idleness.
Let us talk to the body and force it to become more active, despite its objections. There are people with skills, and with knowledge and with an urge to succeed but somehow the urges are not forceful enough. Rather, not passionate enough. Passion works wonders. People with passion automatically tend to be innovative. Success never comes till you are passionate about it.
xiii. Realize the truth:
i. Impermanency:
No condition is permanent. There are seasons in life just as in nature. The conditions undergo changes. No thing is constant. Adversity can never be the permanent condition of any person. Adversities, in fact, provide learning opportunities. Every failure is only a step toward success; detection of what is false directs us towards what is true.
No one will live forever. All of us have been dying, hour by hour, since the moment we were born. But fear of death or adversity doesn't stop the birds chirping. Use them as reminders to live more fully each day.
ii. Lightening of load:
We came into this world with nothing, but through the years we allow ourselves to be weighed down by so much heavy baggage, in the name of security, that our journey through life becomes a punishment instead of a pleasure. If our baggage is heavy, our back will bow under its weight which we have to carry until death .The load need be lightened. Love, peace of mind, and happiness are jewels which no condition of future, no amount of land or coin, can either exalt or depress. Mere money and property can not fill our life with joy.
iii. Detachment:
Detachment is a way of thinking which gives us the freedom to flow with life. It is, in fact keeping us away from the need to hold on to things and people. Detachment is not about denying the joy of achieving abundance. It does not mean not having things. On the contrary, attachment becomes the controlling factor in our life. Unreasonable attachments may make us burdensome. They also give pain at the time of their departure. Performance with out attachment would tend to promote feelings of greater peace and pleasure without, however, undermining the responsibilities towards family and the society at large. It is not being a slave to the attachment of all of those things that we are accumulating- attachment to stuff, other people, past, ideas and being right.
When we encounter someone who believes something quite different from us, we start defining ourselves by trying to explain how wrong he is. At that time, we are unable to realize that all right versus wrong dichotomies is the invention of people. Right does not exist independent of man. The universe is running on the principles that we have defined, but still running independent of our opinions. If we attach to some idea in an unreasonable way, we shut out the possibility of hearing another point of view.
iv. Forgiveness:
Revengefulness is required to be replaced with forgiveness. It would work like the antidote for the poison (hatred) that we have allowed to circulate inside us. It is necessary to forgive others because deep injuries will not heal up until we forgive the person who has inflicted harm to us. If we do not forgive, we suffer ourselves by continuing hanging on to the toxic thoughts of anger and resentment that wreak havoc with our health.
v. Love:
Love is the affinity which links and draws together the elements of the world. Love is our real nature. To love and to be loved are natural desires in every human being. We are made of love and we can't find rest or happiness without it. Every infant needs touch to grow. Positive stroking encourages infants to grow. Infants who are ignored or stroked negatively are encouraged to become losers. It is a need of our inmost self. That is why sometimes, it flows above man-made social and genetic barriers. In love, one believes in only giving and not taking. Rather, in love, difference between the two is lost. We can observe it when we read Jesus Christ, Buddha and other great personalities. Great people love others. They have ability to take on different roles- nurturer, nutritionist, psychologist, educator, healer, social worker, etc. We should love others and subdue thoughts of hatred and anger. The feeling of love energizes ourselves and gives us peace and happiness.
xiv. Person of principles:
Sense of completeness can't be felt without becoming a good human being. It requires implementation of some principles of goodness in our life. One should be true, reasonable, just and fair in one's dealings with others. Development of a high standard of personal ethics is necessary for becoming a good person. It is necessary to be honest. To be a person of principles, one should be a person of integrity and good character. Speaking ill of people behind their backs is indeed a show of poor character.
Good person feels happy by helping others. If he makes a mistake, he says sorry and remains patient when someone makes a mistake. He learns from them and avoids his own. He makes unconditional and unqualified praises and uses 'please' and 'thank you' in his style. He is always a good listener and does not interrupt and complete others sentences.
He always abstains from loose and frivolous talk. He does not laugh or take pleasure in other people's misfortunes. Nor he makes fun of others even when the occasion arises. He is always kind and praises others for their achievements.
The successful leaders make good principles as a part of their behavior. We should know our weaknesses, accept them and try to eliminate them. If we act based on good principles, it will produce quality-of-life results.
- Social factors:
i. Promote trust in others.
ii. Show concerns for other.
iii. Sharing with others.
iv. Effective communicating with others
v. Work for common purpose.
vi. Foster open communication
vii. Build relationship
viii. Leads courageously.
- Business factors:
i. Help others in becoming leaders.
ii. Update knowledge of technology.
iii. Have depth knowledge and skill of business.
iv. Be a Change leader.
v. Think strategically.
vi. Be Innovative
vii. Establish plan
viii. Manage execution.
ix. Drive for results
x. Improve systems and procedures.
xi. Committed to quality.
xii. Focus on customer needs.
xiii. Foster enthusiasm and team spirit.
xiv. Reward and celebrate achievements.
xv. Attract and develop talents.
xvi. Act with integrity.
xvii. Use sound judgment- reasonable, just and fair.
- Cultural factors:
i. Valuing one’s own culture heritage while acknowledging its shortcomings as well as its strengths.
ii. Looking beyond one’s own culture. Respect other’s culture too.
iii. Respectful modernizer.
iv. Culture Bridger
v. Global approach.
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Dr Pramod Kumar
25-10-2003
