Leadership has been one of the most researched and opinioned aspects of human behavior and it still remains a mystery to the majority. The answer to the question “Who is a leader?” is often answered by “The one who leads!” by common folks on the street. Following which if the question “Who leads?” is put up, more often than not the answer happens to be dominated by the words like politicians, army generals, royalty, corporate heads, sports stars, movie-glitterati et cetera. Interestingly all these terms represent a section of society which holds a significant status. They represent larger than life personalities, personalities people want to be. In these answer we can clearly see the conventional outlook of leadership.
Social hierarchies and taboos along with a tinge of culture-specific influences have given rise to the conventional skewed approach and outlook of leadership. It in turn has conditioned an average human-mind in a way that it sees leadership as a distant concept. Although modern educational institutions and organizations worldwide have strived hard bringing this “distant concept” much closer to people, a lot of myths still remain associated with it. Most common of such myths are:
1. Leadership is a rare ability only given to a few:
“Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.”
-Vince Lombardi, Legendary American football coach
A lot of people still think that leaders are born not made. It sure defies any logic and is in fact a self-defeating belief. Leadership is like swimming, everyone can learn it, but it takes time, trial & error and the more you practice the better you get. We can see leadership being exhibited in the most insignificant of the acts all around us: a traffic-constable regulating the traffic, a cricket coach giving batting tips, a student helping is friends with a math problem, a good Samaritan stopping getting the people around to carry the accident-victim to a hospital and many more. If you look back in your life, you’ll find yourself donning the leadership hat in different situations and can reflect and learn the ways to improve upon what you did.
2. People with good position / title are good leaders:
"Leadership is action, not position."
- Donald H. McGannon, Revolutionary Broadcasting Executive
True spirit of leadership is not dependent on position or rank; it is driven by action, performance, ability, and effectiveness. People suddenly do not transform into a good leader by getting a position or title, but it actually happens the other way round. Had the position or title been the absolute indicator of a good leader, we would not have seen so many cases of leadership derailment.
3. All the leaders are charismatic:
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”
- Lao Tzu, Chinese Taoist philosopher
Many leaders are charismatic, but closer scrutiny shows that most leaders are not. Some of the world's most famous leaders were a far cry from being charismatic. Genghis Khan, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Bill Gates would not have fitted the stereotype of a charismatic leader, but nonetheless have been exceptional leaders. A leader’s cause, his purpose and his mission in life adds to his charisma, not the other way around.
4. Effective leadership is based on control:
“You do not lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.”
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president of United States
Leadership is not about command and control — it is about "getting people excited about a common goal and enabling them to achieve it." Good leaders gain followers out of respect and their ability to cause people to work toward a particular goal or achieve a destination. Being an excessive control-freak of a leader can risk you to be put in the league of Hitlers and Saddams of the world.
5. Leaders are perfect:
"There is no such thing as a perfect leader either in the past or present, in China or elsewhere. If there is one, he is only pretending, like a pig inserting scallions into its nose in an effort to look like an elephant."
- Liu Shaoqi, Revolutionary Chinese leader
Leaders are people too without super-human capabilities and that is why can make mistakes and should not be expected to be perfect. It is but natural that good leaders will take risks and in course of time will make mistakes. Had Christopher Columbus not committed a mistake, the complete world order would have been entirely different. On course to great success leaders will make mistakes but it is also very important for them to “own it up” and learn from their mistakes.
To make a better world for the children of tomorrow, we are going to need better leaders. Getting rid of these myths can be a start for creating a fertile ground for the leaders of tomorrow to sprout and blossom.
