What leadership means to me....

More than a decade ago, as a struggling research assistant still, I sat in a massive library packed with countless management books. Overwhelmed, I wondered what to pick first. As I stared up at the towering book racks, a smallish book on leadership caught my eye. I guess, my subconscious chose better than if I had consciously tried to pick an impressive tome.

That book was ‘On Becoming a Leader’ by Warren Bennis. As is the wont of youth, and accompanying exuberance, I had decided after five pages that Bennis would be my favourite leadership author henceforth.

Since then, I’ve noticed an interesting fact.  Full-blooded adulthood, and the cynicism and scepticism that come with it, systematically wipe out most youthful fancies. But if Bennis has stood the test of time, and I still go looking for leadership inspiration in his books, then maybe, I was right sitting in that hot library so long ago. And the man really knows what he is talking about.

After that first, heady brush with leadership learning, I went on to read many articles, interviews, quotes, and books by him and others on leadership. Without prompting, persuasion, or peer pressure – I had decided in a resolute corner of my young mind that leadership was my life’s calling.

I can safely say that Bennis’s deceptively simple, gracefully convincing, and unusually engaging take on leadership has had a profound effect on my adult life - both personally and professionally. I think I am a better person as a result. He emphatically sealed for me facts of leadership that I had heard only in whispers till then.

I guess he is partly to be blamed if people consider me honest beyond practicality, a believer beyond reason, a visionary beyond repair, and a soul-searcher beyond salvage. I can live with that.

Thanks to my mentor (even if only through books) I have begun to understand the secrets of my own mind. I can tap at will, and within moments, into my vision and imagination. In some of my darkest hours, I have found the right path to lead myself into the realm of possibilities. And everything became clearer after that. Leadership is the end-result, as Warren Bennis says, and not the beginning.

I have recently come to realize something else of profound importance to me personally. Leading an organization or team is a lesser priority for me, and I feel no embarrassment in saying so. Leading myself, on the other hand, is something I hope not to falter at. Leadership is not something I only practice, it is something I am. It is not about my position, it is about my mind. And as years go by, I crave for authenticity, not authority.

I am convinced beyond doubt that I am not a born leader. Though, I believe with greater conviction that I have led myself in to becoming one.

PS: Just in case, you get curious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Bennis