Mastering the art of leadership

Leadership is exemplified by the famous poem of Lord Tennyson, ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade,’ in which 600 soldiers of a military platoon were led by their commander into the enemy territory booming with canons and a sure mouth of death. The poet rightly named them ‘noble six hundred’ towards the end of the poem. Good leadership makes the followers selfless and altruistic in the performance of their avowed tasks.

World history is replete with incidents of great leaders who have motivated and galvanised the people for causes—great or small, noble or ignoble. Napoleon Bonaparte, Mao Tse-Tung, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and many others are examples of the working of this power of leadership.

Professional leadership in the corporate world is exhibited by executives who develop one-to-one understanding with their juniors and can get the best out of them in terms of work output and efficiency. Good leaders are focused on the development of their juniors and facilitate their ascent on the corporate ladder.

They are flexible and open-minded and not dogmatic and bookish. They are more customer-oriented than target- or result-oriented. They are more concerned with value addition than with the achievement of numbers in production or sales. They treat employees as human beings rather than machines working for profit. Towards people, they have a more humanistic approach than an overly commercial approach.

The ingredients of good leadership can similarly be understood in the context of a family, a school, a college, a government, a labour union, an Olympic squad, a national defence outfit or a space exploratory mission. What the world today requires is leaders who are visionaries and value-oriented rather than crassly commercial workaholics.

We need people who are wedded to truth, howsoever difficult it may be, to understand and abide by it. We need leaders who are motivated to work not merely for their narrow institutional goals but for the betterment of the larger entities—community, society, nation and the globe. We require leaders who are aligned with the larger ecosystems that nourish all humans and other living beings within their spheres.

We need leaders who are broad-based in their outlook and possess a futuristic perspective on things. Above all, we need leaders who understand the fact that humans are spiritual entities in pursuit of perfection and are committed to aligning their work with this divine truth.

Atul Sehgal is the author of Guide to Inner Wellness, published by Rupa Publications.