In the corporate world, the word
'leadership' makes a lot of hue and cry at public forums. There are plethora of
courses, seminars and workshops on the same, for managers. But when it comes to
day to day working in the organization, this remains a rare feature among
people. Do we exhibit this behavior or even take cognizance of these before acting?
Mostly, we don’t. Not because we don’t remember or we don’t want to; but
because ‘Leadership’ doesn’t work that way. As a matter of fact, this is
something one should not try to learn. Either you have it or you don’t. Period!
As a human, we possess certain
subjective traits, which influence people around us. These traits can be
exhibited with the way we talk to people, the way we listen to people and the
way we understand people. And ‘the way’ determines how we influence people. Definitely,
the behavior of people around us is a good indicator of the traits we possess.
But the first problem is- can we
identify whether self is a leader or not? There is a difference between the one
who is a leader vs. the one who thinks he is a leader. Later being more harmful
as it blinds you from the actual surrounding behavior and lets you consume a
prejudiced format of the same perceived by self-obsession. A classic case of ‘Dunning
Kruger effect’; where in one is so unskilled that he is unable to assess that
he is unskilled.
If it can’t be fed (as one of the
electives in your MBA!), then how do we acquire it. I believe it is a process
of years of lithification under the influence of leaders to plug porous
cavities of one’s character. If in business, money begets money; in any
organization, leadership begets leadership. And this constitutes the culture of
organization as a whole. Yes, you can’t be taught but you can definitely assimilate.
No crash course for that! And it is not just we human, but many other living
beings; a pack of wolf, being one of the popular examples.
Having pointed out the core of leadership,
it is also not practically possible or right to expect that everyone should
possess this extraordinary trait. Rare quality comes to rare people. So what
type of proxy a manager should use to ensure that his effect to the team is at least
of a pseudo- leadership? And what type of rules & policy should an
organization put in place to ensure a productive and motivated environment? The
answer to this question has eluded HR managers of almost all the organizations.
But sometimes I ponder, do we
actually need leadership skills or need to ‘learn’ leadership skills given the
difference in every type of organization. How will it differ among different
type of work spaces e.g. a contractor handling a group of blue collar workers,
a sales head managing a bunch of salesman, a senior consultant heading its corporate
executives and an army officer leading troop? At the end of the day, it is the
task that has to be completed which is at team’s disposal and there is a
command that will ensure that it is done. The quality of command will determine
the quality, efficacy and timeliness of the job done as well as willingness,
loyalty and attentiveness of the doer. Needless to say, the leadership skills
determine the quality of command.
For people who have masked
themselves as a leader, they need to understand that, there is a thin line
between quality of command and control in the group.
To add to the importance of
leadership, there is a tangible cost associated with the lack of it. If you
have spent a good amount of time in corporate world; you would know many tricks
used by your ‘boss’ (intentionally didn’t use the word ‘leader’) to get things
done. Be it hand-twisting, divide and rule, responsibility shrugging, pampering
seniors and expecting the same from juniors, creating prejudiced opinions, ego
massaging, self-righteousness etc. Definitely these don’t promote camaraderie
in the team. But it does hamper the productivity and usable man-hours.
Depending upon the level of infringement at one’s work place, it may cost up to
40% of the employee cost.
Cost is high and the traits are
rare. What’s the solution? This has been an age old conundrum. Recently, many
organizations have started using psychometric test to evaluate their employee.
Gauging emotional quotient is another practice in this regard. But those are
too, susceptible to inaccuracies and feigning. Another option can be 360 degree
review mechanism in an organization. Probably this may help to identify who is
a leader and who is not; but it will definitely not train someone with
leadership skills. So are we out of option to identify a leader at an early
stage? May be; May be not. But, for sure, we need to delve deep into it, to
ensure better and productive working environment. I will leave this as a food
for thought for eminent HR professionals to work upon.
All said and done, I will end
this with a quote of Mark Twain:
“It ain’t what you don’t know
that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
