Leaders need not be Born

(Published in Banking Services Chronicle April 2007)

We often hear “Leaders are born, not made.” To me this seems much like giving legitimacy to the caste system. Similar to saying “you can be a Brahmin only if your are born as one.” Much like accepting that only a scion from the Gandhi-Nehru family is fit to lead the country. If democratic rights are being asserted everywhere, why should leadership be left out of its purview?

Leadership can be inculcated because it is based on certain traits which can be developed through education. In order to become a leader, you first need to develop understanding. It is important to widen one’s horizons and have an exposure to myriad things. Tunnel vision is generally not appropriate for leaders. It is exposure that leads to out-of-the-box thinking—something that a machine can’t do.

When you have developed an understanding, as is done at good management schools, you are left with two choices. You can become an excellent manager and win accolades for that. Or you can develop a vision, which if implemented would leave your footprints on the sands of time. The latter need not be done in a haste. A visionary idea may click in just a couple of minutes. Or it may take a few years to develop during which one may have to depend on his employers for bread and butter and some future security.

Once you have developed a vision—an idea that is likely to work wonders in the future—you must have the courage to implement it. It is likely that your idea gets simply rejected at best and pooh-poohed at worst. But you must have the courage to stick to it.

Every vision needs to be implemented for it to bear fruits. And here decisiveness has a big role to play. Since the ‘what’ has already been decided, the focus should now be on ‘how’. Several visions die a premature death if their propounders shy away from having clarity about how to go about them.

And finally, determination is a must. You must have the ability to brave all odds and persist in the pursuing of your vision.

Proving yourself to be a leader is a climb to the summit. Anybody can do it provided they do not slip at any of the points I have talked about.