If I wish to declare that tomorrow I am going to start a journey on foot which would be 390 km long will 60,000+ people come to listen to my declaration? Can I inspire 75+ friends or co-workers of mine to walk with me without having anything at stake? Can I make 270 million people believe in a dream, that the change is possible? No. I can’t. But there was one man who did it. We know him as Mahatma Gandhi – father of the nation.
If I want to write a small piece of text & call it “Lead by inspiration”, which not more than a few hundred people are going to read, should I choose Mahatma Gandhi as a leader? No one in my generation has seen Mahatma Gandhi. We have read his principles in our text books that most of us have forgotten & some small bits that we remember are not brought to practice. Thanks to Mr. Rajkumar Hirani to throw some light on the teachings of the father of the nation in “Lage raho Munna Bhai” that helped us understand Bapu in a friendly manner. But for my article Bapu is not an ideal choice because of these reasons:
1. My generation haven’t seen him
2. In his era there were no IT companies or other industries that we see today
3. There are already many books on him that one can read
Now if we have to search for an inspirational leader like Bapu in today’s era, we don’t have to search for a person with simple living & high thinking. The times have changed. Today, I see Mr. Narayan Murthy & Mr. Ratan Tata as the Bapus of modern India. Now have we seen them in Dhotis? No. But that shouldn’t stop us from appreciating their contribution to this country. In Gandhiji’s era there was a dire need to free India from the British rule that he contributed in. In Mr. Murthy’s & Mr. Tata’s era there is a dire need to prepare a strong foundation of corporate India which they contributed in.
As they enter into their twilight years, a dire need is felt to rebuild India. This is why we are seeing mushrooming NGOs & CSR initiatives of many companies. Some of these display some real good quality leadership by executing the projects to perfection. Now I have met neither Mr. Murthy nor Mr. Tata so I won’t use examples from their lives in the second part of this article. What I want to write about in second part is the leadership qualities inherent in three prominent personalities from totally different fields, whom I have personally met. I would write why I feel that these leaders have influenced me & why I feel that they lead by inspiration. Also, what are the qualities that we can inherit from them so that we - the next generation improve our leadership qualities?
But before I do that let me tell you why I felt that there is a need to write an article on leadership. As we all know, these are the days of transformation of India from a developing to a developed nation. Indian corporate world has to play a major role in this transformation. Now to make an organization profitable, progressive & happy there is a strong necessity of quality leadership. During my experience in IT industry, I felt that my organization was profitable & progressive but not happy. The employees at ground level are highly frustrated. At times, lack of experience could be a reason for this. But as I gained more experience, I realized that my colleagues don’t feel good about what they are doing & they don’t feel good when they think that they will become managers one day & lead projects. There is no-one in their departments whom the employees at ground level look upon as an idol. The aspiration to grow is necessary for an employee to deliver the best output. But because the employees don’t find anyone whom they can follow, they feel insecure about their career paths. The reason for this is that the managers of my organization don’t lead by inspiration.
If I want to write a small piece of text & call it “Lead by inspiration”, which not more than a few hundred people are going to read, should I choose Mahatma Gandhi as a leader? No one in my generation has seen Mahatma Gandhi. We have read his principles in our text books that most of us have forgotten & some small bits that we remember are not brought to practice. Thanks to Mr. Rajkumar Hirani to throw some light on the teachings of the father of the nation in “Lage raho Munna Bhai” that helped us understand Bapu in a friendly manner. But for my article Bapu is not an ideal choice because of these reasons:
1. My generation haven’t seen him
2. In his era there were no IT companies or other industries that we see today
3. There are already many books on him that one can read
Now if we have to search for an inspirational leader like Bapu in today’s era, we don’t have to search for a person with simple living & high thinking. The times have changed. Today, I see Mr. Narayan Murthy & Mr. Ratan Tata as the Bapus of modern India. Now have we seen them in Dhotis? No. But that shouldn’t stop us from appreciating their contribution to this country. In Gandhiji’s era there was a dire need to free India from the British rule that he contributed in. In Mr. Murthy’s & Mr. Tata’s era there is a dire need to prepare a strong foundation of corporate India which they contributed in.
As they enter into their twilight years, a dire need is felt to rebuild India. This is why we are seeing mushrooming NGOs & CSR initiatives of many companies. Some of these display some real good quality leadership by executing the projects to perfection. Now I have met neither Mr. Murthy nor Mr. Tata so I won’t use examples from their lives in the second part of this article. What I want to write about in second part is the leadership qualities inherent in three prominent personalities from totally different fields, whom I have personally met. I would write why I feel that these leaders have influenced me & why I feel that they lead by inspiration. Also, what are the qualities that we can inherit from them so that we - the next generation improve our leadership qualities?
But before I do that let me tell you why I felt that there is a need to write an article on leadership. As we all know, these are the days of transformation of India from a developing to a developed nation. Indian corporate world has to play a major role in this transformation. Now to make an organization profitable, progressive & happy there is a strong necessity of quality leadership. During my experience in IT industry, I felt that my organization was profitable & progressive but not happy. The employees at ground level are highly frustrated. At times, lack of experience could be a reason for this. But as I gained more experience, I realized that my colleagues don’t feel good about what they are doing & they don’t feel good when they think that they will become managers one day & lead projects. There is no-one in their departments whom the employees at ground level look upon as an idol. The aspiration to grow is necessary for an employee to deliver the best output. But because the employees don’t find anyone whom they can follow, they feel insecure about their career paths. The reason for this is that the managers of my organization don’t lead by inspiration.
