Leadership Conundrum

Volumes have been published on this subject and millions have been spent on either defining Leadership or seeking to understand the meaning of this term. Well after twelve eventful years in corporate world and some centuries on this planet ( I am a firm believer in re-incarnation), I feel obliged that I submit my two cents on this subject. My submission is based on my experience with "Leaders". I will define leadership by what one should not do as a leader.

Leader is one who leads (how intelligent!) and by definition "To Lead" means to show direction or to guide. In the corporate scenario, a manager is seen as one who will also act as the leader, leading his team on the growth path. I can at best term this as a serious misconception. I had an opportunity to work for a manager who seemed more concerned saving his backside than actually contributing to the collective goal. In fact, I learnt more from him on how not to manage your team than I did from anyone else. For example, he would never give a clear direction to his team members. Any sort of discussion would leave the person more confused than before. Any discussion on growth path would result in a judgemental discussion with end no-where in sight. I, therefore, learnt that an individual should be given clear and unambiguous message so that he/she can take appropriate action to move forward.

For a manager to become leader, he or she has to first become acceptable to his team; positional power does not make one a leader. I have been in the field of Quality Management for almost 10 years now. A Quality professional has to be a self starter and be able to effect change without wielding any direct influence over the people whose function he is trying to improve. I have seen quite a few quality professionals fall into the positional power trap using the bait of escalation to get things done. Many would realize that the threat of an NC (non-conformance) would move even the most "incorrigible" managers. However, I had the opportunity to work with a quality professional who had such a good rapport with the Project Managers that he could things get done without resorting to the arm twisting. In situations where he did have to employ the threat, it was a lesson in subtlety. Second lesson, leadership equation comprises of interpersonal skills and subject knowledge as its X's.