You can be a Leader - T V Rao

[Rambob]

"You can be a Leader: You Just Have to Start Thinking, Talking or Doing - Ahead of Others"

During the last forty years of my interactions with managers and others I have come across different types of leaders and managers. I have classified managers in my book on “Managers who make a difference” into four categories: The Doers, Achievers, Visionaries and Missionaries. What distinguishes a manager from a leader is that a manager manages what some others have given him. These are the managers I called as “Doers”. Those who do more that what they are asked to do are already leaders. I.e. in my definition “Achievers” are leaders. The achievers are those who do more than what they are asked to do, or do things faster than before (speed leadership), or excel their own past performance (self leadership), do it more cost effectively than before (cost leadership), or differently than before (another form of self leadership), or better than other by surpassing some bench marks (leadership benchmark), or do it better in quality than before or than anyone else (quality leadership) etc. They would like to complete fast, achieve fast and distinguish themselves as faster or smarter or cost effective etc. The “Achievers” are the first category of leaders. Most people and particularly those who appear for competitive examinations (IIMS, IITs, NITs, Civil service and other competitive examinations for any places) to get admitted into Institutions of their choice are trying to be “Achievers”.

In the next category are the Visionaries and these are the people who identify new opportunities, create a new vision and or break new path ways. Most entrepreneurs are leaders in this category. Entrepreneurs have got to be leaders as they take risks and do things others have not done until then. They not only do better always and try to achieve new land marks, but they create new opportunities and convert problems into opportunities. Employees who come up with new ways of doing things and create new methodologies or new areas of business etc. are all visionaries. They lead by thinking ahead of others and thinking in multiple directions. They do a number of other things than what  they are asked to do or required to do.

The fourth category of managers are missionaries and they devote their entire life for one cause like Dr Kurien devoted his life time to diary industry and cooperative movement; Dr. Abdul Kalam to science education and mother Theresa for taking care of the abandoned.

Most often when I interact with senior managers and particularly those in their fifties and working as general managers and so on, I have often come across a comment saying that “it is too late for them to be leaders”, not much can be done unless you change their culture in the company or heir dominating bosses etc. I believe that more than anything it is this feeling that they cannot change and it is too late that makes it difficult to changes. I would like to give good news to all these people that leadership is not such a difficult thing.

I would like to start by saying that you can be one of the following types of leaders: leader in thought, leadership by word and leadership by action.

Leadership in thought: Anyone who thinks ahead of others is a leader. Thinking is the first step for action. By generating new ideas, by suggesting new methods, procedures, and processes one is indicating thought leadership or leadership in thought. Such people are leaders by ideas and thought. We can call them thought leaders or Leaders in thought. Such leaders can be there in any profession or organization. In any difficult situation of you can think of a solution you are already a thought leader. Most of us are thought leaders but we do not express our thinking and limit it to ourselves. How many times you and I when we heard our seniors or top management or policy makers in our state or country took decision, it could work better if only... Most of our thought leadership gets buried in our own minds and never gets to see the light of the day. Most organizations recruit leaders who passed many competitive examinations and unknowingly prevent them from developing their thought leadership. Sometimes we ourselves kill our leadership thought by giving up soon as our organizations find it difficult to implement or we are unable to get across our thoughts to any significant person who can pursue it. All of us keep getting new ideas but most of us don’t express the same and a few of us have given up thinking after repeated experience that it is easy to dream and difficult to implement. With passage of time some amount of cynicism develops and people start feeling that there is no point dreaming. Such pessimism over a period of time kills our thought leadership. I have noticed many leaders who have excellent thought processes and have given them up as they grew.

Lesson: continue to cultivate your thought leadership even if it cannot be implemented. If you are giving up thought leadership you have already given up an opportunity to be leader. For example  if you have thoughts and ideas about anything be it on corruption or on improved method of doing the work assigned to you or your team don’t give up. Express and cultivate your thought leadership. Don’t assume that there is no use dreaming unless you find someone who takes them seriously. Practice sharing your thoughts or writing your thoughts. Some one somewhere some time will use it. Don’t think thought leaders are greater than you. They were also like you. So think and think ahead of others and be a thought leader in your work, department, organization or even outside.
Leadership in Action: This category of leaders lead by example and doing things fast. They are good at action and implementation. They lead by action and execution. They are restless until they demonstrate their work by example. They lead by doing.
Lesson: If you have an idea and not accustomed to talk much, act now. Do not wait! Sometimes actions teach a lot of lessons.

Talk Leadership: These are the people who lead in their talk. They may have few ideas or they may borrow others ideas but keep sharing and talking their thoughts or others ideas and thoughts. They take lead in getting the lime light by impressing others with their talk. I like to call them “Word Leaders”. Word leaders lead by their word. Dr PP Gupta CMD of CMC in eighties, used to say “Preach even if you don’t practice”. Once when we confronted him and asked him why he is saying so, as it is contrary to popular saying “Practice what you preach”. He remarked, “Professor if you have to speak, you should have something to speak. You need an idea, a vision, or an alternate way of doing things etc. Most people don’t have any such thing. They need to acquire the same if they have to speak. If you have something to speak, one day you will start believing in what you speak and also start practicing. If for some reason you don’t practice it, don’t worry someone will point out if you are practicing what you preach”. Word leadership is leadership by talking. Most preachers and teachers exhibit talk or word leadership and thought leadership.
Lesson: Have a point of view. Develop the same. Start talking about your view point on any issue of significance to any part of the society. Share your thoughts. Write and speak. Find out what you like in other leaders and start talking about your views and lessons we all should learn from them. Be a talk leader.

Integrated leadership is a combination of all the above three. The person leads by his/her thoughts, speeches and also in action. This is the higher from of leadership. To reach this stage one has to start with thought leadership and graduate to word or talk leadership and then to demonstrate by action. Profit and loss are not indicators of leadership qualities. In failure also there are many leadership lessons. Leadership is to be judged by the nature of thought, words or speech and deeds. Leadership means to lead and that is to think ahead, say before others say, and do ahead of others. Leaders are always ahead of others. How many others is a matter of context. The context is to be defined by the person and not necessarily the outside world.
Self concept an important role in leadership. If you cannot think ahead of others or think that you can’t think ahead of others, speak ahead of others by borrowing others’ thoughts (of course acknowledging). If you can’t think ahead of others or speak ahead of others, act ahead of others to establish your leadership competence. So you can be one of the above types of leaders: Leader in thought, leader in talk, or a leader in action. However remember leadership cannot be seen or felt unless you have character and through it credibility.

Honesty, integrity, and values are critical foundations for leadership. Those who lack these cannot be leaders and even if they do by chance it becomes short term. Unethical and over selfish behaviour with greed gets noticed and such people are sure to lose their leadership status. Similarly if you are inefficient and ineffective in your role you are bound to lose your credibility and leadership status. You need to be doing your job efficiently, effectively and ethically. If character is lost everything is lost.