From childhood to adulthood, one word that has resonated with me very intimately is ‘LEADER’. There have been multiple definitions of this word, and for each individual, it represents something unique. As I closely introspected the true meaning of this word, it stood out in the dictionary of my life as follows:
L – Learning – A leader is not about the I-know-it-all attitude, but a learner who is willing to imbibe new knowledge from anyone around him/her at any given single opportunity. Learning is not bound to the chains of hierarchy, it is an open forum with no designated individuals, events, or elements.
E – Empathy – To put yourself in the shoes of another human being while keeping your feelings and emotions aside is the true meaning of Empathy. A leader is someone who doesn’t just post quotes on empathy on various networking sites, but who applies them in his/her life.
A – Attention – Every second, every minute, every hour when an individual is speaking to you, the only thing that matters is Attention. Paying attention to the person interacting with you is a sign of respect and communicates a leader’s involvement in the subject. If a leader starts paying more attention to the human lives around her/him, it will lead to reenergizing of changes at scale.
D – Discipline – To walk on a designed path every single moment, day, week, and year with relentless grit, persuasion, obsession, and passion is what I call ‘Discipline’. Day in and day out to be focused on a task without being affected by the ‘in your face chaos’ of your surroundings is what leads to the making of an exceptional leader from an ordinary one.
E – Execution – A great idea will always remain a great idea on paper unless it’s well-executed. We very often give all our focus to ideas and not to how we will execute it to achieve the desired outcome. An idea, project, the assignment becomes history with the appropriate combination of creative and execution genius.
R – Race – Very often while running in the race of life, a leader becomes focused on the set goal missing the universe encompassing the goal. In a sea full of people competing in a race the race becomes the focal point of one’s journey. While it is about the race, for a leader the race shouldn’t overpower, overtake, over dominate her/his true quest for the Journey she/he decided to walk on in spite of the obstacle race.
Written by Mansi Darbar, Network VP – Corporate Strategy & Development, IN10 Media Network.