How Great Leaders Are Made?

“Leadership is not about a tittle or a designation. Leadership is about impact, influence and inspiration” Robin Sharma

If you want to become a great leader, you have to understand that the great leadership is not about your position but it is about your attitude, mindset and serving others.

Anyone can show the leadership irrespective of their position, whether in an organization, society or family or any other set up. E.g. When receptionist greets the visitors with a pleasant smile, asks for a glass of water, a cup of tea or coffee and makes the person feel comfortable, she/he is showing the leadership as compare to an arrogant Manager, Owner, VP or CEO of an organization.

Your behavior with ground staff also shows whether you are a great leader or a mediocre leader.

“When your work makes an impact on others and inspires others to take an action, you are a leader”

There are leaders in every field like corporate, sports, politics, social, family and education. Leaders in these fields have different characteristics and styles of leadership. There are some common traits of the great leaders like empathy, good communication skills, compassion, service orientation, delegation, team management and reading habits.

Examples of great leaders- Abdul Kalam, Baba Amte, Dr. Ambedkar, Shivaji Maharaj, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, JRD Tata and many more.

How great leaders are made? How can you become a great leader? There is a no sure shot way to become a great leader but there are many qualities of a great leader which you can develop. You can start with these three unique qualities of leadership if you are aspiring to become one-

1-Leaders Are Readers– Harry Truman has said that all readers are not leaders but all leaders are readers.

If you want to become a great leader, first you have to become a great reader.

Read books related to self-development, leadership, technology etc, read autobiographies of great people, novels and research articles to improve your knowledge base. The more you read, the more you gain knowledge and the better you can guide others. People always follow the knowledgeable leaders. So to gain knowledge, start reading to become a great leader.

2-Leaders Are Connectors– Great leaders connect with new people. They form the network of people who benefit from their services. It is because of their ability to guide and influence the behavior of others. Leaders are expected to inspire their followers and without followers, a leader cannot leverage his influence. So it is necessary to connect with new people and form the network of people. Great leaders are great networkers. So connect and network with people.

3-Leaders Are Service Oriented– Leadership is about caring, guiding and serving others. If you observe great leaders, you will find that they see through the eyes of understanding and service. They always put people first and understand their problems and provide the solutions through their service. They focus their energy on making the lives of other people better.

E.g. APJ Abdul Kalam along with one doctor developed a cost effective medical stent for heart patients and he never claimed for a patent or kept high price of stent. He wanted to serve the heart patients in the country. Had he been not service oriented, he would have sold that technology to any pharma giant and would have earned millions. But service oriented attitude prevented this and made him a great leader. So if you want to become a great leader, develop service oriented attitude.

Friends, develop these three qualities and your path of becoming a great leader will be smoother.

It is said by John Maxwell that “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way”

Great leaders do the same, they first walk through the unknown path and then guide others to take that path. It can be anything like helping those who are in need, inspiring someone to take an action, developing others, showing empathy, preventing someone from doing wrong things, standing against injustice or serving others.

“You become great through your work and services”

“So friends read, connect and serve others to start the journey of a great leadership’’