Leadership against the backdrop of Management

There are two kinds of mindsets:- one is worker's mindset and the other is leader's mindset. It is generally believed that people can be trained as leaders. Even I used to think the same until recently. Leaders are innate, and can never be trained. Circumstances make leaders, otherwise every other person that comes out of a management institute should be a leader, which is certainly not the case. And, the interesting thing is that management is all about teaching leadership to non-leaders!

 

What makes one a leader? There is no characteristic that is common to all the leaders, except that they have followers and that, from the bottom of their heart, want the welfare of their followers. All leaders, like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King were original thinkers, and didn't seek approval from anyone. So, if an MBA grad or a recently trained manager, having ambitions to reach the top himself, gives sermons on leadership, I highly doubt that it can inspire confidence in people. True leaders are selfless, and are rare gems, who don't work for money or fame or prestige; all else is just an aspiration towards leadership. A true leader does not learn leadership lessons through ted talks or youtube videos or through some fancy quotes from greats, but leads by example, and is ready to embrace negative popularity for doing what he thinks is right; he stands the ground come what may; he doesn't think about the consequences of the same, just does as his heart says.

 

What is interesting is that when non-leaders try to act as leaders without having a background in leadership, they dwell in superficialities with no vision or understanding at all; they derive leadership lessons mostly from talks or some leadership material, and try to apply the same regardless of the context, giving rise to awkward scenarios. For example, in meetings if people continually hear the same jargon, they feel as if it is some kind of different language that only the management understands. Moreover, getting alarmed over even simple things such as friendly banter, or somebody's opinion in his private life, asking for feedback without properly understanding the problem, judging people on fancy metrics and disciplining people in case of non-conformity shows that training is not enough to teach leadership!

 

It is not that a true leader does not cater to his own needs, but he places the interests of others before his. And, such a quality cannot be taught or trained; it is deeply ingrained in a leader's mind, and he acts accordingly on this intuition, not after doing calculations as to what constitutes leadership or not! Since, in a corporate setting, it is counterintuitive to think that people come for welfare of others rather than their own, the definition of leadership also undergoes a metamorphosis to mean people who are truthful, just, honest, straightforward, secure about their flaws and don't pretend to be true leaders!