Couple of years back, in an interview with a top MBA university, somebody asked me - "What's your leadership style ?". At first I couldn't apprehend the question and clarified that what exactly you are looking for in the answer. They just wanted to know what's my thinking about leadership and how do I put it to implementation in real life scenarios. I thought for a moment and told them, I like to lead by example. I followed up with an example from my real life about how I tried to achieve a challenging task that set the example for others to follow. I have always looked upon my seniors and managers as how well they guide the team in difficult situations. One will follow you only when they have faith in you. And to have people to have faith in you, you got to set examples and win their trust. Merely just having excellent communication skills won't suffice, you got to have the right combination of knowledge and the vision to move ahead and steer your team in challenging times - and that is what I think leadership is all about.
I was listening to a talk on leadership by former Vodafone CEO Mr. Arun Sarin. He was addressing business students from his alma matter at Hass school of business. He broadly categorized leadership into four parts viz. strategy planning, handling Operations, people manager and cross-cultural communication abilities. He emphasized that all four are equally important to be a good business leader.Certain people are good in planning strategies and have great vision but lack the people management skills. Respecting people is the fundamental quality of a good people manager. It's a simple phenomenon of give respect and take respect.
Further, he stressed that cross cultural communication skills are necessary in current global times where one has to deal with people of different nationalities and cultures. I quite agree with this point of his because, if you have to do business in another country, even if you don't know the language or culture, you must possess skills that can develop a feeling of trust for you in other's mind. After all, they are investing in your business and they won't do so, if they don't trust you.
There are different theories that exist on leadership, (check here) and people have often tried to quantify it but I believe that leadership is something that can not be taught as a subject and you can pass that subject based on some numbers. I believe the traits of a leader comes from the environment one is born and brought up in or the people around you or the circumstances in which you have lead your life. Then be it politics, Science, Arts or Literature, leaders are the one who shape the life's of people and the world.
Further, he stressed that cross cultural communication skills are necessary in current global times where one has to deal with people of different nationalities and cultures. I quite agree with this point of his because, if you have to do business in another country, even if you don't know the language or culture, you must possess skills that can develop a feeling of trust for you in other's mind. After all, they are investing in your business and they won't do so, if they don't trust you.
There are different theories that exist on leadership, (check here) and people have often tried to quantify it but I believe that leadership is something that can not be taught as a subject and you can pass that subject based on some numbers. I believe the traits of a leader comes from the environment one is born and brought up in or the people around you or the circumstances in which you have lead your life. Then be it politics, Science, Arts or Literature, leaders are the one who shape the life's of people and the world.
