One thing that ensures your leadership fails

Imagine a world where there is no failure. Is it as interesting and adventurous as it is now? It is not, at least to me. The probability of success or failure and the unknown road ahead, is what makes our pursuit of goals and life itself so adventurous. But who wants to fail? Nobody.

I have been very fortunate to have served with the army in the low intensity conflict of Jammu and Kashmir with various leaders with different leadership styles.  During those days I used to closely analyse their behavior and thought process and how it affected the end result of success or failure. I learned one very important lesson and a prominent indicator of inevitable failure as a leader.

Years later on embarking upon a new career in the information technology industry and getting a chance to work with many business leaders, again gave me a chance to continue this study of mine.  Not to my surprise I found the same indicator of inevitable failure as a leader as I had seen in the Army.

So what is it? What is an imminent reason for failure as a leader?

It is the thought of –“Us and Them”. Yes, couldn’t help but quote one of my all-time favorite Pink Floyd songs in making my point. It is this very poisoning thought which kills projects, teams and organizations. The moment a leader separates himself from the executing team the damage is done. Quite often I have seen a leader separate himself from the team in trying to figure out a solution. That never helps, and one can be very sure that the team will read the leader’s mind very well and in spite of their best efforts that project will still fail. In fact if just the opposite is done, that is, the leader surrenders to the problem and becomes one with the team and its problem and tries to come up with a solution together, wondrous results are achieved.

What are your thoughts on this?

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