PRACTISED LEADERSHIP-5 : TO BECOME A LEADER-QUOTE 6 TO 10

PRACTISED LEADERSHIP-5 : TO BECOME A LEADER-QUOTE 6 TO 10

At each IIT, IIM, Medical Colleges, and each and every academic institution some professor ‘teaches’ ‘LEADERSHIP”. Leadership cannot be taught as theory. What are they teaching?

Will the youth not be confused? What exactly is leadership? Google Top 10 Qualities of a Leader and it throws up:

• Integrity.
• Ability to delegate.
• Communication.
• Self-awareness.
• Gratitude.
• Learning agility.
• Influence.
• Empathy.

What does the youth do with words? He is taught literal meaning of each depending on what curriculum or book is being followed. What does a 19 year old do with ‘integrity’? What does he delegate? Whom does he communicate with? Or at 17-19 yrs. age what does he understand by ‘Gratitude’, ‘Learning Agility’ or ‘Empathy’? His life experience is zero. Just school and college. How does he become a leader after few classes? Will you know where the nail in the shoe hurts without wearing it ?

Youth needs to read ‘PRACTICED LEADERSHIP”. What exactly each of these mean and how someone practiced it. Someone who is giving live examples of his life at each age from 20 to 60. The journey is necessary to understand to mould own character as one grows up. Leadership does not come with designation or seniority. It comes with practice. You practice leadership from as young an age as possible. You learn from someone who has practiced leadership himself. One does not require theory but practical cases and experience at each stage in life to understand leadership.

I have started the series “PRACTICED LEADERSHIP” where from my 21 years of age, each year stories etc. are given. Truth. Huge number of colleagues who were witness. This is practiced leadership. I DID IT. My unique way of teaching ‘leadership’ is that I write a quote and explain it. Simple. You can simply relate and follow it in your life. The first article was:

PRACTICED LEADERSHIP-1 : TO BECOME A LEADER https://colsanjaypande.com/practised-leadership-1-to-become-a-leader/

The PRACTICED LEADERSHIP series will have huge number of case studies based on my experiences. Each experience is given as a story with a tag ‘Military Leadership’ and can be seen on home page of my website. These stories will be analysed against the age I was at that time and the leadership qualities can be dissected.

Also read:

In the first article  “IS LEADERSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL SUCCESS CONNECTED?”

https://colsanjaypande.com/is-leadership-and-professional-success-connected/ I covered :

In the second article “LEADERSHIP : YOU LEARN MORE FROM WHAT NOT TO BE, THAN, WHAT TO BE”

https://colsanjaypande.com/leadership-you-learn-more-from-what-not-to-be-than-what-to-be/

The third article was about “LEADERSHIP : IT ALL STARTS HERE – TRUTHFULNESS’ https://colsanjaypande.com/leadership-it-all-starts-here-truthfulness/

PRACTISED LEADERSHIP-2

Quote-6

YOUR leadership impact is seen in YOUR absence and is based on ‘trust’.
TO BE SUCCESSFUL LEADER- BE TRUSTWORTHY
– Col Sanjay Pande –

What does ‘impact’ of leadership mean? It’s the work you entrust to people being done in your absence and without any need to cross check the progress. A leader requires time to plan, think, foresee events and look shallow as well as deep into the future. How does he do when his complete span of attention is captured by his subordinates doing the allotted task? In your absence the work must go on as it goes on when present. Why doesn’t it happen? Most of the time the person never teaches or delegates his work resulting in lack of capabilities in subordinates. The passion to control is another reason. Fear of some subordinate learning and leaving makes the person keep things close to heart. Overall the reason for all of the above is lack of trust.

Don’t show trust in subordinates and they will reciprocate. Show trust and then see the results. Just showing trust is meaningless. Building up capability and skill set is the starter. Gradually handing them over responsibilities is next. Trust builds up gradually. It is like concrete. The more you water (delegate) the more it becomes stronger.

In actual life we need to build confidence in those around us lacking the same. Do it frequently and people get attracted to you. You will always be a level higher than them. They will trust you. A leader is in the making.

Quote-7

You want others to ‘trust’ you just because you are a ‘leader’.
TO CREATE TRUST IN. YOU, FIRST, TRUST OTHERS
– Col Sanjay Pande –

The main problem with people is the assumption that because you are occupying a higher position, your subordinates must trust you. It will never happen. Seniority, higher designation, superior position in no way are a license to gaining trust. Building trust is individual matter. Position does not matter. You have to build it all over again soon as you change an organization. The start point will always remain same, ‘You. Start trusting subordinates, build skill sets and capabilities, delegate, supervise discreetly, stand by subordinates and only then have you planted a seed called trust. The plant has to be cared for and nursed throughout. Once you start trusting others, others notice it faster than you. They reciprocate slowly at the beginning. You have no choice but to be consistent.

Trust grows like a tree. Very slowly. It has the potential to ‘die’ or turn into an oak or redwood tree. Its your plant. If it dies, you are to blame. Do you realize that till you are professionally competent, truthful, sincere and honest in handling your subordinates the tree cannot grow?

Quote-8

Have a ‘VISION’ and “EYESIGHT” like an eagle. See horizon to horizon but go for a small kill. BE SHARP – SEE BIG BUT HIT ‘DOT ON TARGET’

– Col Sanjay Pande –

Our biggest limitation is our refusal to exploit the capability of our own mind. We have capability to look into the future, predict events based on facts, plan our life one, two, five and ten years hence and then work on it. Unless there is a life plan how do we progress? Today it is all about ‘today’. Let it pass and leave next day to the ‘next’ day. Life treats you exactly like that. You get what is left over.

Simply put, if you ask yourself, what do you want to be seen as five years hence? Not a difficult question only if you do this exercise keeping your own qualification, grade, skill set and experience in mind. We are dishonest. We have capabilities and qualification of a lower grade but want to achieve highest. Its fine so far as you chart the route to that highest position. You are actually developing a vision. You can see horizon to horizon. You are clear on what you desire.

The journey to achieve desired goal starts with charting the route. The work that needs to be done. This is the ‘eagle eyesight’. Unmistakable, sharp and focused of a target. Achieve it, again gain height and hunt for the next point on route. That’s how you have a vision as well as eagles eyesight. One is broad while another is ‘Dot on Target’.

While you do all of the above, there is no compromise on professional competence, character, truthfulness, credibility, trustworthiness etc.. The effort to become a good leader becomes more and more difficult.

Quote-9

Focus on making a person feel BIG for what he has done rather than make him feel SMALL for something he may not have done.

LEADERS HAVE BIG HEART

– Col Sanjay Pande –

The reason you will be a leader is because you have a much bigger heart than others. Big heart to accommodate the weak without ridicule. You accommodate the weak with an aim to make them better. Make a person feel big for the work he does or the result he has got. Let that be poor by your standards but making him feel big boosts his confidence. Discuss how he could do it better next time. Sit with him and discuss weaknesses. He will so willingly share everything. Our stature increases while the colleague or subordinated confidence increases even more.

Contrary to this what happens? A person who has committed a small mistake, achieved less or something he may not have even done is highlighted publicly. Ridiculed. What will be the result? Personal satisfaction to you and a permanent loss of human resource who will never be the same again with you.

Leaders have a big heart. It should accommodate from best to worst with equality. Help, guide, coax, goad and do whatever, but a leader must ensure that each progresses to become the best.

Quote-10

Will you know where the nail in the shoe hurts without wearing it ? You should have been there first.
LEADERS DON’T HAVE TO BE TOLD. THEY KNOW.

– Col Sanjay Pande –

One of the biggest and finest qualities is to know without being told. Today the best argument to run away from a situation is to say, ‘I was not told / informed.’ It may be true, but then it is as much true that you are not a leader. Accept it. Leaders have a RAM that processes each and every person and event mentally with such great speed that its analysis becomes a continuous feed to the faculty of brain that decides ‘next action’. A leader must know everything without being told. He must have capability to visualize to a reasonable accuracy the events and factors affecting events.

When a leader ‘teaches’ leadership, can he teach without having undergone the pain or the process himself? If you are not able to visualize it today, it simply means that you never wore that shoe which hurts. Had you done that; it would be so easy to visualize.

This capability can only be developed by getting involved with people. The more you involve, the more you know about a person and so much easy to predict his likely reaction to a situation. Why wait for someone to come and report? Why don’t you know about the possibility in advance? You don’t have to be told to be a good leader.

Hope you are enjoying reading this series. Will be very happy to respond on website to your comments.

Next Five Quotes in PRACTISED LEADERSHIP-3 : TO BECOME A LEADER

Col Sanjay Pande

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