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What is Leadership?

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Leadership is not a quality only some people have been born with as is viewed and understood currently. Everyone can become a leader and the quality of leadership arises from one’s ability to take responsibility for a particular organization, a situation or a particular group.

 

So many books have been written on this subject of leadership by management gurus, professors and consultants. Most of them have spoken about how a successful leader should be. There are a lot of courses conducted by companies on leadership, team work, etc.

My disciples who have come from the corporate world have described to me how these courses are conducted and what they have been striving to achieve through these courses. They have also told me that while the courses have been helpful to them, the effect from the courses tends to wear off within a short period after the courses are completed.

I am told of weekend boot camps where team spirit is built by climbing ropes, playing games, creating a sense of friendship, etc. The gist I picked up from hearing my disciples is that these training programs tend to work on the outer attributes but do little to change or improve the ‘inner software’ of the individuals so that leadership can radiate from the individual. Leadership is not a quality, but an experience that can radiate from an individual who has experienced personal growth and transformation.

Now let me give you some explanations of how leadership is described traditionally. If you search the internet under the terms ‘Leadership’ and ‘Leader’, you will be amazed at the millions of hits that come up! Just recently when I typed the word ‘Leadership’ on Google it had 156 million hits and the word ‘Leader’ had 278 million hits!

So whatever needs to be written or said on these topics has been said! So I am here to mainly give you a few examples from the leading management gurus and their concepts of a leader and more importantly to give you the real understanding, tools and techniques on how to become a leader and how anyone can radiate leadership as a result of personal transformation!

Understand, every human being is a potential leader. Leadership is not a quality only some people have been born with as is viewed and understood currently.

Everyone can become a leader and the quality of leadership arises from one’s ability to take responsibility for a particular organization, a situation or a particular group.

I have here some definitions of leadership you can get from an internet search:

Peter Drucker* defines a leader as ‘someone who has followers’.

John C Maxwell* says, ‘Leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less.’

Warren Bennis* says, ‘Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well-communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential.’

John Gardner* defines leadership as ‘the process of persuasion and example by which an individual or leadership team induces a group to take action that is in accord with the leader’s purpose, or the shared purposes of all.’

Here is yet another definition of a leader from an unnamed source, ‘Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills.’

I am sure there are thousands of such definitions on what a leader should be and what leadership is. I am not going to go into too much of detail into this, but I wanted to point out some of the quotes from leading management gurus on leaders and leadership. All of these experts tell us what a leader should be and the traits that define a successful leader. Yet, there is very little of how one can attain this state of a leader. So it leads to the question: Are leadership traits inborn or can a leader be created? To understand this, we need to delve into the composition of the mind and the science of the so called inner world. This is an area where the eastern mystics have spent thousands of years exploring and discovering the inner world. They have created tools and techniques to create the right ‘inner software’ to cultivate leadership skills. Let us explore this in greater detail.

Glossary:

*Peter Drucker – Management guru considered to be the father of modern management.

*John C Maxwell – Leadership expert and writer.

*Warren Bennis – Management and leadership consultant.

*John Gardner – Author of a number of books on leadership.

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