The Anatomy of the ‘Leader’

• Firstly, I believe that everyone has a Leader within and it is the individual’s responsibility to demonstrate that leadership in everyday life.
• Leadership does not mean having to lead a group of people – on the contrary, leadership starts within an individual and its manifestation then spreads rapidly and subsequently has the ability to touch thousands, millions & more
• We are promoting many people into leadership positions every year. I am very happy for them, especially if they grow from within the company, through the ranks and exemplify their accomplishments and the organization’s trust and people philosophy
• I enjoy personally communicating with these newly minted leaders, congratulating them and spending a moment sharing their happiness & celebrating their success. I also communicate to them with all honesty that the expectations from them from here on are very different from the past. Qualities that have brought them thus far are not necessarily the ones that will take them to the next level
• I like using the word ‘Leader’ rather than ‘Manager’ – to me the connotations are very different. A Leader is a superset of a Manager. A leader demonstrates all the characteristics of a Manager when needed but the archetypical manager need not be a ‘leader’
• In my readings & observing people behaviors I mainly see leaders painting the vision, energizing & inspiring the team, helping them set extended goals & achieving them, personally & professionally growing the team members & generally inspiring everyone with a positive outlook of life and the future. A manager manages the team towards metrics, focused more on the ‘What’ than the ‘How’, largely tactical in approach and mostly uses positional power & coercion to get the work done
• While sounding paradoxical, a leader might need to behave like a manager in certain situations. Having the credibility & trust within the team and taking time to clearly explain the ‘Why’ to the team often cushions the behavior
• Being a leader is about playing many roles – guide, coach, friend & others. While playing these roles, the leader takes difficult but fair decisions, demonstrates tenderness & firmness, leads by example where needed but allows the spot light to be on the people rather than on himself. He does everything with the interest of the organization, team and the individual in that order.