Leadership - A thought

Leadership - When I think about it, an unshakable image comes to mind… A sinking ship, the Captain at the helm, ever focused and the ship mates, focused on their task, hurrying - for time is of the essence, but without panic.

The outcome of the above - perhaps is not important. The the ship had perhaps recovered and the crew safe, for the crew trusts their captain - for he would rise to the challenge and deliver, and the captain, his crew - their faith that the captain’s command intends to solve. “Leadership, is not about power, it comes with mutual respect between the leader and his peer”. 

Without trust and respect, it is absurd to expect a leader to lead his pack. But trust and respect are the hardest to gain and is not easy. What makes a pack trust their leader? In the above example, the crew trusted the captain - because of the captain’s experience, his track record that he can deliver. 

But would someone’s experience make him a good leader? Perhaps not so. A key to leadership is assertiveness and confidence. Assertiveness comes indeed with experience, but more to that, assertiveness comes with the ‘inner drive’. There is always a thin line that separates assertiveness and arrogance. All good leaders are assertive and seldom tilt towards arrogance - perhaps mainly because they understand that “you cannot expect your team to do what you cannot”. 

But of course, a leader is as effective as the drive he has and the values he believe in, and a team is as effective as they are pushed forward, and a leader may not be able to do all that he believes. This is where a leader’s belief comes into picture. If the leader is committed to the cause and believes that something can be achieved, his belief gets propagated to his peers. An inspiration that drives people to do impossible things - things that they previously had thought was never possible.

A classic example for this would be the rise and comeback of Apple. Steve Jobs’ core value of making better products and products better had inspired his peers to raise their bars and achieve impossible feat - be it the transparent Mac, the elegance of iOS experience, the impossible feat of jam packing “1000 songs in your pocket”, or even his iconic Apple events, Jobs’ drive had propagated to his peers and had driven them to achieve some of their best work. As always, there is always the boundary between assertion and arrogance, to drive your peers to greatness or to drive them to madness. A good leader has to realise his team’s potential. A thin ice…

It may not always be a smooth sail, at times, failures are inevitable to the least. While a lot of events may have driven the failure, it becomes a leader’s responsibility to drive his team towards completion. “Unwavering focus is a hallmark of a leader”. A calm and assertive stance, for what had failed had already failed and the race still needs to be completed, a leader’s focus enables his team to complete the race. A constructive retrospective to follow - to avoid such, in future.

When I used to play Warcraft - a RPG game, I used to be fascinated towards one of the artifact in the game. The ring that gives out an aura of brilliance - that increases the team’s intelligence, strength or agility. To simply put, the ring can make your team better. I used to think that may or the real life scenario could be solved - if this ring was real. 

It is funny though. Now that I think about it, the ring increases the leader’s attributes - that synergises with his team. In simpler terms, a team is only as good as its leader. If you want your team to finish their deliverables on time - you can inspire them to do so if you were able to finish your deliverables on time. If you want your team to create great products, they can, only if you are able to, and if you believe it is possible. “A responsible individual becomes a great leader”. It is your integrity that inspires integrity in your team and what qualities you have, you radiate to your team and, they reflect it.

There are some scenarios - where integral individuals - who are SMEs in their area struggles to “lead”. When you try too hard to achieve something, you inadvertently influence it to go south. With so much drive to achieve something, you give out an aura of weakness, desperation, and sometimes disharmony within your core values that permeates to your team which causes discord. “A good leader is the one who leads without intending to”. A good leader just plays the game, does what comes best to him. When you have the discipline and focus, and are doing what you do best, you are calm and assertive, and that beings people towards you. You lead, without intending to.