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New Delhi, October 12 (IANS) Of all the requirements for a leader that have been written about, there are five unmistakable qualities that define leadership success in the new age of knowledge that we are in. Since all businesses are human activities, a leader’s understanding of human nature and psychology and his interest in human interactions fall right on top of leadership qualities.
The head of an enterprise cannot be an isolated person sitting at the top of the vertical hierarchy because the responsibilities of such a person range from monitoring the production of individual employees to setting the ethical framework for the organization. Since the performance of the corporate body is now the sum total of the work done by teams handling critical functions, a successful CEO today also has to take the responsibility of forming the right teams and providing the right work environment to enable them to perform at their best.
The top person should define the parameters of the ‘boss-subordinate’ relationship, set norms of interaction among members and define an objective system to judge the performance of employees so that there is no confusion about credit-sharing.
The second most important requirement of leadership is the determination to keep oneself well informed about the activities going on within the organization and relevant developments taking place outside. There should be no hesitation in facing information – A good leader is proactive in seeking information because he remembers that ‘information does not reach you, you have to reach the information.’
A head of a corporate body today knows what new responsibilities have been created for the CIO and HRD head by AI applications and has the ability to guide these applications. CIOs in particular are now leading the transformation of dispersed digital devices into connected intelligent work systems. The top leader should be keen to know how the customer reach can be expanded and how new service operations can be created in that particular area of the business.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made cost-effectiveness an important means of increasing profitability through deployment, organizational reset of processes and training programs.
In the age of knowledge, competitiveness has touched new heights because even if you are well informed, competitors may have as much knowledge as you because today information is shared universally as soon as it is created. What can give you an edge over others is that you have ‘special’ information called Intelligence which gives you an idea of ’what will happen next’.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) had the potential to help create future readings based on data analytics or ‘machine learning’ and generate predictive readings just for you. There is no doubt that AI is governed by the input-output principle, but the business owner can use it in an innovative way to generate beneficial knowledge such as finding out the ‘modus operandi’ of a competitor – the latter was likely to replicate it. Intelligence indicates ‘opportunities’ or ‘risks’ on the horizon and helps organizational leadership decide how to proceed profitably.
Today a leader must not only be knowledgeable but also intelligence-oriented. Knowledge-based decision making is the hallmark of good leadership and if action is based on intelligence, it will fail in most situations. A leader should not assume that decision-making ability comes from personal charisma or heritage.
The third basic issue of leadership is that the leader must be able to justify the trust reposed in him by the followers. This, in turn, will depend on the character, image and conduct of the leader. A leader should be trustworthy, approachable, impartial, big-hearted and transparent so that there is no discrepancy between his words and actions. In short, the leader must have the ‘power of authenticity’ from which he derives strength. It is tested by the authority that the leader’s words command, especially in times of collective adversity or moments of crisis that the organization, the nation, and the world at large face.
An act of implicit bias, a lapse in ethics or the revelation of a vested interest can irreparably damage a leader’s image. The benefits of leadership lie at the physical, mental and spiritual levels and a leader has to show equanimity towards material comforts, courage rooted in the strength of ‘nerves’ and commitment to a stated value-system to enjoy them. A leader should be democratically minded, but he should retain the power to take decisions and he should have the communication ability to convince the followers that their interests are safe with him. Leadership in any field demands clarity of expression and concrete presentation of one’s vision. The power of communication is an integral part of the above ‘power of authenticity’.
Another hallmark of leadership is the personal and organizational legacy that the leader leaves for his or her successors. This is quite obvious because it doesn’t usually happen. The Indian concept of a leader being ‘paternal and nurturing’ towards those who work for him helped foster this legacy.
The boss-subordinate relationship in the Western value system is all about giving orders and demanding compliance – this leaves little scope for the exercise of ’emotional intelligence’ that would allow the boss to know how the subordinate is doing on the family front and generally outside the workplace.
Emotional Quotient (EQ) is a measure of emotional intelligence and it enables a leader to make adjustments if an employee does not meet ‘deadlines’ or shows abnormal reactions, perhaps because something on the family front was troubling him/her. The relationship between senior and junior should not be too impersonal and dry.
On the other hand, it is also possible – and this may be part of the Western trend – that the employee may prefer not to take any interest in the boss’s personal life. A wise leader knows what will work with individual team members. The essence of the ‘parenting’ style of leadership is to exercise authority over a worker to ‘do’ the work, but to give the impression that the top person is accessible if a situation arises in the corporate body that requires guidance. Also, today a successful leader is tested not only by his decision making ability but also by his ability to make ‘course correction’ in the inevitable situation.
The ultimate bid for leadership is a natural blend of the leader’s imagination, freedom from ‘fear of failure’ and confidence in the collective intelligence of those being led. This mix in itself is a variable that determines how much success a leader will be able to show.
Albert Einstein’s statement that ‘imagination is more important than knowledge’ refers only to the ability given to the human mind – not the machine – to see beyond the facts or figures encountered and understand what is going to happen next, never mind the wood for the trees. An intelligence organization is a typical example of a collective body in which individual operators are not afraid of failure because they are confident that they know their job and will leave no stone unturned in completing it. Not all leaders are able to foster that sense of confidence.
Furthermore, an organization representing the diversity of its members and its leadership will do well to tap the intelligence of its members, especially in difficult circumstances. Intelligence does not depend on rank, affluence and gender and good business organization depends as much on the assessment of the external environment as on a strong system of internal feedback relating to the various points of strategy under test.
(The author is a former director of the Intelligence Bureau)
–IANS
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