Mahadeep Singh Jamwal
The ‘word’ leader in dictionary means the person who leads. It also means a person who convinces other people to follow, a person having vision inspiring others, ability to guide others without force, into a direction or decision. I assert leader as a man, who listen, inspire, and empower the common masses. The true leadership comes when those around you are influenced by your life in a positive way. Leadership is the behavior that brings the future to the present. Leadership is employing your skills and knowledge, leveraged by your attitude to get the results for the betterment of the people. Leadership is influencing others by your character, humility and example. It is recognizable when others follow. Leadership is not about finding ways to lead better or to motivate; it is about being there from the beginning as equals and becoming a mentor when the people need you. Leadership is caring more about the cause and the people than about your own personal pain and success. Leadership is stepping out of your comfort zone.
But when we perceive the meaning of leader, in real perspective, we fail to convince our self, whether such persons can be termed as real leading persons owing to the reason of their dubious character, criminal background, illiterate, uncultured behaviors and above all, their thrust on the public by the parties for the reasons best known to them. Owing to the political party culture a rightful person hardly can establish himself as leader without going to the party fold but some of the qualities listed below can establish one as a recognised leader.
Education and awareness: A person not educated is like a rotten egg which cannot be fertile. It is not possible for an uneducated to aware himself about the changing scenario of the literate society. Unaware person himself leads to the dark side of the humanity; he is deprived of Imaginations, Creativities, Inspirational Instinct, Self Assessment, Sharp Perception Decisiveness, Accountability, Confidence, Erroneous Nature and Optimism. So education is the first requirement of a person projecting himself to be a leader.
Communicative: The person should have skill of communicating things in simple and impressive manner. A plain and truthful communication is more acceptable and impressive than false and cunning communication which ultimately exposes the real instincts.
Trustworthy and honest:
True authority is born from respect because of the good character, honesty and trustworthiness of the person. A good leader should have exemplary character. It is of utmost importance that a leader is trustworthy to lead others. A leader needs to be trusted and be known to live their life with honesty and integrity. Self propagation about honesty does not qualify one, that he is honest, whereas one should be socially accepted as honest. If we have to sum up the definition of honest, we can easily say that who is not dishonest, is honest. Where as in real sense we do not find any one who can claim himself to be not dishonest, as every act in one’s life is adjudged, and somewhere we fail to distance our self from an act, which can be easily termed as dishonest act, which otherwise appears to be routinely act. One become dishonest in political life not only by taking monetary transactions but by other ways also such as; dishonest by actions, dishonest by back tracking commitments, dishonest by patronising criminal activities, dishonest by undue favors, dishonest by discriminations, dishonest by criminalization of self and assisting criminals and many more.
Morally honest:
The morale means to have a sense of what is right, good, and truthful, based on an implied common standard or from within yourself. Morally dishonest is a person, not caring between what is good and what is bad and only focusing on one’s own means to an end. So moral should be unquestionable, It is the utmost requirement that one should be morally honest and not morally dishonest.
Enthusiastic, passionate, dedicated and inspirational:
These characteristics play a great role to get branded as a leader in real perspective. A good leader is enthusiastic about their work or cause and also about their role as leader. The acceptance of a leader of passion and dedicational attitude is responded by people more openly. Leaders need to be able to be a source of inspiration to the general masses, and be a motivator in convincing towards the required action or cause. In real perspective it is the team work which is the real achiever of the goal set by the leader but the responsibilities and roles of a leader should be seen to be part of the team working towards the goal.
Confident:
The confidence is the sole energy which is the base to realise ones capacity to establish him as leader. A good leader should be confident enough to lead and set direction, he should appear to be confident as a person and in the leadership role. Self confident person inspires confidence in others. He draws out the trust and best efforts of the team to complete the task well. A leader who conveys confidence towards the proposed objective inspires the best effort from the people. The testing times are the period of uncertainty and a leader needs to function in an orderly and purposeful manner in situations of uncertainty. People look to the leader during times of uncertainty, unfamiliarity and find reassurance and security when the leader portrays confidence and a positive demeanor.
Tolerable, calm and composed:
As the saying goes “Deep waters are calm and surface waters are shallow” in nature. Good leaders should be tolerant of ambiguity and remain calm, composed and steadfast to the main purpose. The temporarily obstacles in no way hinders their performance. A person having analytical thinking, can very well keep the main goal in focus. He is in a position to analyze any sort of situation and fragment it into sub parts for closer retrospection and can break it down into manageable steps and make progress towards it.
Committed:
The leader should be a personality of commitment and not a hollow ‘wagon Wheel’ as distracting from commitments speaks of unreliability of the person and he is most dangerous in nature. One should be committed to exhibit excellence and should realize that second best does not lead to success. By maintaining high standards, he should be proactive in raising the bar in order to achieve excellence in all areas.
These personal characteristics are foundational to good leadership. Some characteristics may be more naturally present in the personality of a leader. However, each of these characteristics can also be developed and strengthened. A good leader whether they naturally possess these qualities or not, will be diligent to consistently develop and strengthen them in their leadership role. Summing up, Education, Delegating, Positive Attitude, Creativity, Inspire, Approach, Team Building, Risk Taking, Vision and Goal Setting, Self Assessment, Sharp Perception, Awareness, Decisiveness, Accountability, Confidence, Optimism, Honesty, Trustworthiness, Commitment, Tolerable, Calmness, and a Composed Nature are factors to brand a person as a leader. A leader is someone who has the clarity to know the right things to do, the confidence to know when he is wrong and the courage to do the right things, even when they are hard. Leadership is ability to vision and inspire motivation in others to move forward.
