WHAT MAKES A GOOD LEADER?

Leaders are there because there are followers. Leadership cannot be understood in isolation of followership. It is the followers who make a leader. Self-styled leadership lasts for a very short time, till the followers are ignorant. It is temporary. Such leadership is imposed and there are subordinates following the leader out of compulsion or in absence of any choice. However, when followers make a leader, when they elect or nominate a leader, such leaders are remembered for their ability to lead.

When one amongst the team members is given the responsibility to lead the team, one cannot afford to ignore the team members, their interest, their abilities, their competencies and their drive to work towards the larger cause of achieving organizational goal. The team leader has to invest on enhancing capabilities of the team members and on building trust among team members. The leaders who resort to pick and choose, divide and rule, ignite and ignore, without any reason or rhyme, just to remain in position or to achieve individual end are not recognised by the team members. These team members can never become followers and such leaders only demand respect and can never command respect.

Some leaders ignore their followers and some give top priority to the followers need and organizational interest. And whoever successfully balances this, stays as leader, irrespective of the position. Leadership is all about exerting power and power is sourced through position and/or through personal qualities and character. All aspire to enjoy power and more through position of power. What one needs to keep in mind that positional power is temporary and resides in the chair; it makes people to respect the leader till s/he is in power. However personal power is much beyond position, it resides in the person; it does not move with the chair, rather it moves with the individual leader.

Individuals who cherish personal power and happen to enjoy position are considered much better leaders as compared to the individuals who are attached to their chair and believe in control through position; such leaders are forgotten easily. For such people, position is important for exerting power, however the leaders who have better personal power take people along and focus on using positional power through winning confidence of the team members. Since individuals are different, they may have different reason to respect a leader but what remains a common factor is their genuine respect. At times it is also observed that both leaders and followers are found to be opportunistic, hence they resolve to pleasing and promoting each other. But such leaders are easily forgotten. The genuine respect of a follower is judged through the respect that a leader keeps commanding even when s/he is not in position. That makes one an authentic leader who commands authentic love and affection of the followers.

Some leaders command respect while some demand respect. Leaders who create conveniences for themselves believe in demanding respect, whereas the genuine leaders create conveniences for their followers and push them to perform for the interest of the organization, effortlessly. Such leaders command respect. Such leaders enjoy personal power.

So if one wants to enjoy positional power to the fullest, one needs to invest efforts and time in gaining personal power first. And then to aspire to be in the position of power. Such leaders are change makers. Now how one can gain personal power. There are two parts of this – one, knowledge about the task; two, knowledge about the team members. Though task knowledge is the core however the knowledge about team members is not less important. The art of taking people along, enjoying their trust and loyalty through addressing their concern, and having knowledge about their skills and competencies go a long way in building great teams and commanding respect. One needs to invest on learning people skills, one needs to be people person apart from the understanding of the goal and direction in order to enjoy personal power. One should have courage to take some plausible decisions to improve work culture and win the hearts of the team members. And one has to empower the team members to take and own decisions. If your concerns are genuine, you should not worry much on how people are going to judge you, when you are not in position of power. The ability of such leader shall be judged by some tangible outcomes and results, by his/her intervention in smoothening processes and building positive culture.

As mentioned in the beginning, leaders are there because there are followers. So, a good leader has to have the ability to take people along. If you take care of people, they would take care of organizational goal.

(The motivation to write this piece stems from the response of one of our colleagues to a mail sent by the event organizer, the mail sent read as -

         ''Dear Madam / Sir

          Let's meet for lunch in the Department on Saturday, 12th March 2022 at 12.45 pm to celebrate three years of able leadership.

          Warm Regards''


The response of the colleague was –

           ''Dear Event organiser(s)

           Thanks for the invitation.

            It is indeed a time to celebrate for all though reasons may differ for different people. So, please do not judge on the ability of leadership on behalf of all.

            Best wishes''

Ever since I read this email, I got into thinking on my understanding of leadership and to collate with the kind of leadership I have observed within the organization I work; the kind of leadership I teach to my OB students; and the kind of leadership I expect from my students when they are in position.)