Concept of Leadership as it applies to me

                  The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I.” And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think “I.” They think “we”; they think “team.” They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but “we” gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.-----Peter Drucker

A leader is an agent of change, and progress is about change. In the words of Robert F Kennedy, 'Progress is a nice word; but change is its motivator.'

Leadership is about raising the aspirations of followers and enthusing people with a desire to reach for the stars. For instance, Mahatma Gandhi created a vision for independence in India and raised the aspirations of our people.

Leadership is about making people say, 'I will walk on water for you.' It is about creating a worthy dream and helping people achieve it.

Robert Kennedy , summed up leadership best when he said, 'Others see things as they are and wonder why; I see them as they are not and say why not?'

Concepts of leadership as applied to me are ---

1) Forward looking

            To achieve our goal, we need to set one. I believe team could achieve its goal only when they are set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely). Only then team members could understand each of their roles in achieving the goal and work constructively towards it. My principle is to Set goals and to have a vision for the future. The vision must be owned throughout the organization.

2) Honesty

         I believe team members could trust me only when i am honest to them. To win the trust of team members I believe "Honesty is the best policy". According to me "Honesty is a facet of moral character and denotes positive and virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness and straightforwardness".

3) Supportive

        The team members tend to makes mistakes. I believe instead of being reprehensible, one need to be supportive and foster a positive environment that allows team to flourish. By doing so, the team members will believe that I care in their growth and progress in their career. I could instill in them "Never say Die" attitude in whatever task i allocate to them.

4) Empowerment and Engagement

           The team members should feel emboldened and powerful to take stand against whatever they feel wrong and destructive for the progress of organisation or what hinders the progress towards the goal of the team.

I believe leaders will be able to get all members of their teams engaged. This can be done by offering them challenge, seeking their ideas and contributions and providing them with recognition for their contributions.

5) Inspiring and Confidence

            "I think it's very difficult to lead today when people are not really truly participating in the decision. You won't be able to attract and retain great people if they don't feel like they are part of the authorship of the strategy and the authorship of the really critical issues. When opportunities are given to them to take decision and lead the actions, they will inspired to do more and become confident on the task.

It should also be backed by certain actions of leader. Take their blame and leave success to them. This will inspire and instill confidence in them to achieve their goals.

6) Clarity

               One of the ways get confidence is by becoming really, really clear about who you are and what is most important to you. I feel few leaders fail when they try to become all things to all people, or try to do too much out of their area of excellence. Clarity helps one to say "yes" to the right things -- and "no" to others.

7) Leverage team strengths

                Part of awareness is not to expect people to change. If one think that one can change someone,he should think again. This doesn't mean one can't help them grow and develop. But don't expect to change anyone (even our self behaviorally). We are who we are. I believe one of my job as a leader is to understand each person's strengths and place them in positions where they can flourish and grow. If a leader good at that, he has a huge part of the equation for success.