Essence of Leadership

Leadership is the art of leading men. A leader is a man who inspires the people below him to perform the allotted tasks. A leader can be any body from a general to a manager in the corporate field to a political head or robber gang.

Field marshal Viscount Slim CIGS and commander India opined that a leader is a man that drives his men all the times. This is true to an extant but a leader cannot be a man who is not susceptible to the needs of the men under him. Thus even in a factory manger who is a leader must have the pulse of the workers known to him.

A leader must also be realistic and setting unobtainable goals can have a backlash and even elementary targets may not be achieved. Thus one of the qualities of a leader is to set realistic targets or goals and also be aware of the capabilities of the men under him. It would be unrealistic to set goals that are beyond the capability of the persons under the leader.

In the corporate world, setting production targets is one of the requirements of a corporate leader. But in setting the targets the resources available and the capacity of the work force and its level of skill will have to be considered. Thus in the erst while Soviet Union industries were set targets to be achieved that had no relation to ground realities. The result was disastrous as in the long run the soviet state collapsed.

Leadership in the political field is slightly different as it can be fueled more by Charisma. Hitler and Mussolini are examples of this type of leadership. It generally results in mass hysteria and the leader can make use of these qualities to galvanize the people. Ethics in political leadership has a last place, for who can forget Dr Goebbels statement that a lie repeated a hundred times becomes a truth.

A leader in any field must not only inspire the men under him but also motivate them. Motivation is one aspect of leadership that is the most important. Without motivation even simple tasks may end up as unachievable. Thus the US army soldiers fighting in Afghanistan cannot fight if the motivation is missing. None of the big auto makers would be able to achieve their targets if the work force is not motivated. The hall mark of a good leader is to motivate the men.

Leadership is a quality that comes with time. It certainly is ingrained but it is not outside the realm of impossibility to pick up leadership qualities. All you require is a sharp and sensitive mind.

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