“Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.”
- Norman Schwarzkopf
I feel that leadership is an art rather than an ideal or a skill that can be imposed on someone. It is like being in a maze. You have to pave your way to self-leadership. But in today’s time people have a great misconception about what leadership is. They think that for one to be a leader it is necessary for them to hold a designated post of office, to have people work under him/her and to make exercise of the powers vested in him. Otherwise today, every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to be Donald Trump or Narendra Modi.
I say that until people learn to lead themselves well, they will never be able to lead others. And that is why self-leadership is very important. They speak with great pride that they will lead others to bring about a change in society but they forget the part that one is also supposed to practice what they preach. It is utterly important for one to change themselves first in order to change others. I have learnt this from my own personal experience. The hardest thing for me had been overcoming myself, to find a leader for myself, because like everybody even I had blind spots- when we fail to see things accurately or to analyse situations in the correct manner.
And where the most important question stands, how did I overcome this?
I followed my three rules – (i) Control over one’s ego (ii)Finding solutions to problems instead of running away from them and (iii) By being a good listener.
I have often observed that some people have a completely different problem, and that is lack of self-esteem or self-love. They feel that if they try and do something constructive, they might mess things up. To overcome this, one needs to develop some confidence because at times, confidence solves more than half of the problems.
An epitome of what I’m trying to explain is a young girl of 16 who has apparently shook the world – Greta Thunberg. She is a leader to many, role model to few, but first and above all, she is a leader to herself. And this is what I’s trying to convey. To be a leader and to bring about a change, it is important to realize – “It starts with me”.
