FIVE POWERFUL FACTORS THAT EMPOWER YOU TO BE A LEADER
– By Kapil Chhabra
“Leadership’s a lot more about how brilliantly you work and how masterfully you behave.”
― A quote by Robin S. Sharma, from his book ‘The Leader Who Had No Title’
The other day, recently, I woke up to a bright sunny day and looked at the sky with few white clouds, a rarity in Mumbai during the monsoon season. The nice weather prompted me to go for my morning walk and enjoy the fresh airy weather. As I walk through this lively park in my gated community home while admiring the greenery, I noticed this young boy sitting beside his grandmother and meticulously drawing something in his book, with what seemed like a hand-crafted pencil. As I watched the boy, I noticed that every time he completed a perfect stroke with the pencil, he gazed at the pencil with such satisfaction, as if he were thanking it.
I felt so intrigued by observing the way he valued the pencil. This reminded me of a simple yet thought-provoking parable by acclaimed novelist Paulo Coelho- “The Pencil”. I’ve given it a swirl of my own interpretation to tie it down to how leadership qualities can sprout.
The parable goes like this. Long ago, there lived a pencil maker who admired each and every pencil he carved out. One day, master pencil maker was preparing to put a well-crafted pencil into a beautifully decorated box; but before doing so, he took the pencil aside to give it some words of wisdom. This is what he told the pencil:
Dear Pencil, there are five things I wish to share with you before you go out into the world. Always keep them in mind, to become the best version of a pencil you can be. This will enable you to make a positive difference in the world and be at peace inside and outside:
- You will be the enabler to many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be directed by someone’s hand.
- You will need to keep yourself sharp, at all times, to be effective in playing your role. You may experience sharpening process to be painful at times, but this will be necessary for you to become a better pencil and for your continued relevance.
- You may be able to correct most of the mistakes that you might make, when there’s an eraser to support you, but remember some mistakes will be more difficult to erase or may leave traces
- The most important part of you will always be what’s inside. Someone may or may not like what’s on the outside, but that does not matter as much as the inside.
- You must endeavour to create a mark on every surface you walk on. You must contribute i.e. write irrespective of the condition of the surface, as it may exist, in there external world.
The pencil understood and promised to remember these words of wisdom, and went into the box with an understanding of purpose in its heart. This made me ponder over how something as simple as a pencil has so many leadership lessons to dwell upon. It made me realize how relevant this understanding is for leadership aspects too.
Many personal development professionals are of the opinion that leaders are born and thus everyone cannot be a leader. Well, in their defence, they probably haven’t looked at the entire realm of reality. And most people too think that they can-not become a leader.
I believe that leadership is something that begins in your mind and then transcends into your behaviours and actions. For me, today is all about self-empowerment with potential to make everyone a self-leader. Everyone is a leader or say a Chief-Executive-Officer to at the least one person, i.e. they themselves. Self-leadership is about knowing who you really are, what you can do, and where you want to go, by steering your thoughts and behaviour to get there.
So the learnings from the pencils journey can provide us insights as how each of us has the potential and necessity to be leader. Elucidated below are the “five powerful factors that empower you to be a leader”
- Amenable i.e.responsive to suggestion, being persuadable and open to be guided.
When we write with a pencil, we guide the pencil to what we want to write. Similarly, we need to be amenable, like a pencil, and choose to be guided by people who are more experienced and/or or have specialized expertise. This is why we have mentors and expert boards. Being open to feedback in a positive way, having the capacity to respond and not react differing opinions, and being humble in accepting help, guidance, expertise when required, makes us more effective.
- Ascendable i.e. ability to rise to an occasion
Preparedness is another name for potential, preparedness to rise to an occasion is all about being competent to avail an opportunity, when it appears. Just like the pencil, we need to go under the blade remain sharp i.e. be a continuous learner and keep enhancing our skills. Again welcome feedback as an input to get ahead of our deficiencies. Like a pencil when the pointed edge breaks be prepared to re-sharpen yourself. Tough challenges in life hone us to become a better person. Most people don’t even feel like leaders—until they come across a situation that either tests their limits or brings out their strengths. To sharpen our capabilities, we need to put in hard work and stretch ourselves when required.
Most
of the successful leaders today were leading an average life until they came
across a challenging situation to rise above and/or got an insight that ignited
a fire in their belly that awakened them to make a difference; they come out of
the situation much more successful or stronger.
- Acceptance: i.e. acceptance of our current realities and our failures; & willingness for continuous learning and for making amends.
In this journey of existence it important for us to be self-confident and having awareness of the present moment and mindful that mistakes are an integral part of actions. It’s when we embrace these mistakes and learn from them and enhance then make changes, we are able to shine through our contributions.
Most of us learn, erase and
become better, just like the third point for the pencil. Doers take time in
developing themselves, they constantly asses themselves in terms of their
knowledge, skills, talents, weaknesses, etc; and they work to correct and enhance
themselves. This is self-leadership and it’s a never-ending self-development
activity. If you have to lead others, you have to constantly better yourself
and then encourage others to do the same. If you commit to learning
continually, you will have better leadership skills with each passing day.
- Awareness: i.e. awareness of self and of our impact & how we engage with others
Being a leader has never really been about title, role, age or culture. These factors may influence the style of a leader but are definitely not deciding factors. We can impact the world positively, if we are driven by our purpose and passion.
As a leader, it is important to know yourself. We usually invest a lot of time to manage our external appearance; we can apply the same concepts to manage ourselves internally. Do you know yourself? Do you know what drives you? How do you fuel your passion? Just like the pencil, we all are crafted differently; it’s what’s on the inside that’s really the most important and we need to discover that.
- Aspirational: i.e. aspiring to make a positive difference, through contributions, and by being useful and kind, to others
Aspiration with the 3Ps of Passion, Perseverance, and Plasticity, makes a big difference to what we contribute which in turn determines the level of our success. There are times when we wonder whether all this effort, struggle and hardship is all worth it, but there may be people depending on us and we need to pull through. Leadership is about holding onto your vision and values even despite of obstacles that may come on the way.
It is said that everything you do has some effect, some impact. So what are you doing to make a positive impact? Think about how you can leverage your passions and talents to create a positive impact in the world around you. For example, I believe that I have gained a good deal of knowledge over the years and I strive every single day to make sure that expertise and knowledge reaches others in way that can help them in be more fulfilled and successful.
Sociologists have often suggested that the most people will influence 10,000 others in an average lifetime. In other words, every one of us, even the shy ones, are influencing others. It simply means each of us is expected to be leader in our own way to lead ourselves and to influence other on the right path.
Welcome to the world where everyone is a leader. & we should take massive actions daily to reach the pinnacle of our dreams.
“We all need to lead where we are planted and shine where we now find ourselves.”
― A quote by Robin S. Sharma, from his book ‘The Leader Who Had No Title’
