You are a leader, nobody needs to tell you that

You lead something anything somewhere anywhere at every point of life after all.

Change, we know and have read an ‘n’ number of times, is the only constant in life. But, how do we keep track of the changes which happen around us? In this ever-changing world of ours, it is easy to stagnate if one does not keep up with the change which happens and keeps it under our firm control. Again, but, how does one go about doing this? The answer to this perplexity is simple.

Simple. It is by never giving up on learning; by always striving to learn and to keep check of all that happens around us. And, who best to teach us this than the leader we try to emulate. For the third time, again, how does the leader teach us to always keep learning? – by setting an example and by continuously learning himself or herself.

This is the objective of a true-blue leader – show his team and those under him that learning isn’t new but only mantra, the new chant, which tells us that this is the surefire way to always excel, to always be in the gambit, and always be touching base with all that matters.

Leadership is important, as it guides everyone else around, enlightens everyone around. It paves a way, it helps in figuring many new ways.

Leaders should, ideally, bring more knowledge to the table. In effect, leaders read, listen, engage, act, relearn. In addition, leaders also: perform or excel in a role; they take risks in order to succeed; they stretch or go beyond their comfort zone; learn to reflect; create self-awareness; trust others around them; adapt to things and events which surround them; indulge in mentoring others to succeed; observe the happenings and people who connect with them; integrate all their philosophies into the goal which they have set.

And how do they accomplish such insurmountable tasks? You guessed it right – by learning how to overcome one challenge at a time and then going for the next round, and the one after it, and so on.

Good that you’re learning. Is everyone learning? What makes them so special who are learning? Learning. Learning is an art. Everything is an art. And it’s just that not everybody embraces it.

A journey started with learning never ends, and in mid of the way, you become a leader. A leader of your own things even if nobody’s around. You choose to make or break things for your own good or for your own bad. It’s you who decide, it’s you who cherish and it’s you who regret. For instance, not everything comes by choice, but integrity does come by choice. Either you own it or you have no idea about it.

As per research, organizations spent more than twenty-four billion dollars worldwide on leadership development in 2013, an increase of 15% in 2012. Now, we’ve arrived in the year 2018, do some maths. This is despite the knowledge that leadership is best learnt from experience and not just via the mode of programs which teach this skill. In addition, another research also shows that those who are in a mood to learn become better leaders.

For being an effective leader, one must be aware of the following three-phase cycle: the first phase in this is to be aware of the need to learn. The second phase involves experimenting with alternate strategies. The third phase is to be in the mode to learn and to develop a code around it.

You need to reflect upon what went well in your efforts, and what did not, and why. Then, try to rectify the issues which came up during your sojourns. In order to achieve your goals as a leader, it is also imperative to not always benchmark yourselves with others. It is best to tweak people to focus more on developing than diagnosing leadership qualities.

Leadership defines a leader and a leader defines leadership, it’s not the other way round.

Leaders, we all know, inspire. They set the ball rolling. They map out a path to grow and to win. They bring in a new energy, a positive vibe, and a mojo to succeed. They give you a code to add on to your personality and to your ethos in your work. Leaders set goals and bring in strategies to fulfil them. They teach you that learning is the best thing possible to do and show this by always learning themselves.

Leadership, in essence, “is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it”, said Dwight D. Eisenhower. And, as per transformational leadership, effective leaders create a vision which inspires, motivates to engage with the mission statement; are able to deliver the vision; teach and create framework which succeeds. True leaders will never stagnate themselves and nor will they let this fungus grow on those around them. They do this because they are full-time learners.

As seen time and again, it is ‘learning’ which props up in surveys and program the entire world over as a characteristic which stands one in good stead in all arenas of life, be those personal or professional.

And who better to set the register ringing other than your chosen leader? But then again, it isn’t only his domain, or his purview, or entirely his initiative to bring in the sense of learning but each and every set of people who work with the respective firm in a bid to make everyone [including him, of course] successful in what everyone’s striving for. Striving for, of course, at work.

The question you need to ask today is are you a learner? Put it better, are you learning? When you have your answers, nobody needs to tell you that whether you’re a leader or not, because you already know the answer.

(With inputs from Ayush Garg).