PRACTICED LEADERSHIP-3 : IT ALL STARTS HERE – TRUTHFULNESS

PRACTICED LEADERSHIP-3 : IT ALL STARTS HERE – TRUTHFULNESS

There is only one way I can impart my knowledge of leadership. Walk with me from the time I was a child to date. 60 years. I turned into a very successful military leader, a mentor, highly respected in business, at work place and at home. I was and am an absolutely no nonsense man. I started practicing leadership soon as I was commissioned in Army.

I have practiced leadership since 1982. I was 22. You must know what I was before believing in me. Today after 38 years of practiced leadership, I can confidently say that there are hardly any people who can match me in strength of character. I am not boasting. I am writing this in public domain where there are thousands of people who know me. Just one person is required to declare me a liar. I am putting my public existence at stake. It’s a lot to bet upon.

Read this like a story. I was different in my childhood. Never lied. Never scared of consequences. I remember standing in front of my father accused of something I had not done. I would be beaten. I would not flinch, not move and not run. I remember I was five yrs. old. I would cry with pain but would not move. I would tell my father what actually happened. I simply would not lie. He did not believe and thought I was lying. I would cry and later think why does being truthful gets me punishment? I refused to change.

I was never scared of abuse. In school the teachers in Kendriya Vidyalayas believed in beating to. I would take any amount of beating but would not lie. Schools were the nurseries of learning cunningness, lying, being smart etc., but nothing appealed to me. Result was that my school memories are either of beatings or totally lacklustre.

It became a habit. I realized the strength of being truthful. I never feared anything as a child. Life was full of instances where I knew that lying will get me something everyone had. I denied myself all the pleasures just for the sake of sticking to truth. Schooling and college exposed me to home, school, hostel, rented accommodation, staying with relatives and few temporary abodes. All had different type of people but there was something in common. Lying was a very standard practice. Smallest of things where there was no reason to lie made people lie. I started enjoying the faces. The lying faces. Soon the realisation came that truth has such strength that the high and mighty can be made to fall like nine pins.

I simply practiced what I believed. Say what has happened. Period. Never think of consequences. At home with an elder and a younger sibling, at school with friends, in the colony some friends and that was it. It took me a second to kick out a friend from my life if he lied. There was this arrogance and confidence in me which defied my physical structure. The day I passed out from academy I was 56 kg and standing 5 ft 8 in. Probably the most unimpressive personality.

There was something in me that would scare people off after they had known me for a while. Strength of character. No one messed up with me when I was 22 yr. old. No one has till date.

With this I finish here and start a very interesting way to impart leadership lessons. Just read what an ordinary human being like me can achieve.

YOU ARE GOLD STANDARD. Let’s start the journey.