Chapter 5 – Tips From A Grand Father To His Grownup Grand Children- By Col (Retd) Bhaskar Sarkar VSM

 Chapter 5: Leader vs Manager

Leader is one of the most difficult terms to define. Instinctively we can easily identify a leader in a group. He is one who we expect will show us the way, who will tell us what to do to achieve our collective goal or to guide us in time of crisis. He is a person whom we admire and trust.

A leader is always mentioned in relation to a particular group. We have religious leaders like Jesus Christ, Gautam Buddha or Guru Nanak. We have military leaders like Rommel, Patton or Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. We have political leaders like Hitler, Churchill or Mao Ze Dong. We have leaders in the worlds of sports or fashion, men and women who set the trends for others to follow. We have leaders in our family, in our clubs and in our class.

What makes a leader? Why do we accept a person as a leader? What makes him tick? These are some of the questions which we will try to examine in this chapter.

Every human group activity needs the guiding hand of a leader to direct the activities of the group and channel the energies of the group in achieving its goals. In the march of civilization, the first leaders were the leaders of tribes. They were usually elected. Then came the kings. We have elected leaders leading countries with democracies. We have generals leading armies on the battle fields. We had religious leaders spreading different faiths. There are captains of industries who have established successful businesses. We have team captains and coaches of teams of games and sports.

The leader may be elected or nominated or hereditary. But they all have one mission. The mission of a leader is to use the resources of the group to achieve the goals of the group.

All leaders are not equally successful. India has seen thousands of kings and emperors but the names of Babar, Akbar, Rana Pratap or Shivaji find a special place in history. There were hundreds of generals who led armies in the Second World War. But Rommel, Von Manstien and Patton find special mention for their ability to inspire their troops to heroic deed. Leaders are not always successful in their mission. General Montgomery won the battle of El Alamein but it is Rommel who was more admired and revered by the troops. Akbar’s general Man Singh won many more battles than Rana Pratap, but it is Rana Pratap who inspires valour and admiration of the nation.

To be successful leaders we need to understand leadership.

Let us first try to understand the difference between a leader and a manager. A leader works to achieve certain goals, so does a manager. Both work with people and other resources. But there are differences.

A leader has to be a manager to be able to achieve the objectives of his group. A manager is rarely a leader. A leader is people oriented. A manager is profit oriented. However, if a manager wants to be successful in the long run, he must imbibe the art of leadership.

“A” stands for abilities of a leader. A leader has to set and achieve goals for the group he leads. To be able to do that he needs certain abilities like mental alertness to be able to set popular and beneficial objective. He must have the ability to plan, execute the plan and achieve the objective. He must be able to provide the professional knowledge required to execute the plan. He must be able to maintain harmony within the group and between the group and the environment.

“B” stands for the behavior of a leader. A leader leads from the front. He dominates his group. He is visible to his followers. He constantly communicates with his followers telling them what to do and how to do things to achieve the group objective. He is always where the danger and the action is. Leaders set examples for their followers.

 “C” stands for the characteristics of a leader. These are traits which leaders should have and which make them successful. These are qualities like justice and fair play, courage, integrity, loyalty, patriotism etc. We will study these in detail in the second part of the session.

“D” stands for dynamism of a leader. A leader has to be dynamic. He has to act all the time. He has to be able to maintain his hold on the group. He must be sensitive to the needs, hopes and aspirations of his group and of the individuals who make up the group. He must constantly monitor the mood of the group and the environment and act whenever necessary.

Every human group activity needs the guiding hand of a leader to direct the activities of the group and to channel the energies of the group to achieve the aim. The leader may be elected or nominated or hereditary. All leaders are not equally successful. To be successful, as potential leaders we need to understand leadership. There are three pillars of leadership. These are selflessness, knowledge and character.

Selflessness is an essential requirement of Leadership. A leader has to identify himself with the needs, hopes and aspiration of the people. Mahatma Gandhi or Subhash Chandra Bose did not lead the freedom struggle or the Azad Hind Fauj for personal gains. They were ready to suffer mental and physical dangers and hardship to achieve their goals.

A leader needs two types of knowledge. Professional knowledge which would enable the leader to achieve the goal and knowledge of human nature which enables the leader to motivate the group to give their all to achieve the goal.

Leaders must have impeccable character to gain respect or reverence of their followers. These character traits will be discussed in detail in the next part of this session.

Leadership traits are the qualities of a successful leader.  It is said that a successful leader has three basic qualities. These are selflessness, knowledge and character. I will try to explain these qualities.

Selflessness is the foundation of leadership. It comes from total faith in an ideal or a cause. Selflessness is most difficult to acquire. It is imbibed during childhood through the influence of the mother who is mostly seen as being the most selfless person in the family. It is imbibed through the customs and traditions of sharing and caring in the family and society and by witnessing the examples of selflessness in leaders and personalities who are accepted as role models during our childhood and adolescence. It is faith or belief in the cause that enables men and women to rise above self-interest and self-preservation and give everything in quest of the cause or goal. The Rani of Jhansi could have lived and ruled if she had not defied the British Raj in search for independence. Selflessness is the fountainhead of all virtues contained in a leader. It is also what differentiates a Leader from a Manager.

A successful leader has to retain the faith and admiration of his followers. He has to work with the help of his group to achieve the goal. The Leader must know to handle people. This knowledge of man management has three parts.

Human Psychology. A leader must know human psychology. He must understand how to arouse human emotions of anger and indignation at his enemies. He must understand how to keep the group committed to the cause. He must know how to keep the group faithful and loyal to his leadership.

Communications. A leader is usually a good orator. He must have good communication skills. He must be able to sell dreams. He must be able to indoctrinate members of his group to accept the justness and legitimacy of the cause.

Theory of Motivation. A leader must know how to motivate members of his group to do his bidding without any fear or remorse about the consequences. Motivating a suicide bomber is perhaps the ultimate test of the motivational skill of the leader.

A leader has to achieve some objectives for his group. To achieve objectives, he must use resources available to him. He must know how to prepare a plan to achieve his goal.

A leader must know how to organize his resources to achieve his aim. He must know how to create and finance organizations. He must know how to create an hierarchy without creating conflict within the organization. He has to lay down a chain of command and succession. He has to develop systems for communications and security.

A leader may not have acquired his knowledge at a management school or at a formal school. A lot of this knowledge may have been acquired during discourses with wise men of their times. Many things might have been learnt intuitively during childhood and while growing up through exceptional powers of observation and reasoning.  They may have read or heard stories about the exploits of leaders they admired. They may have grown as an apprentice or lieutenant to some leader of his time and imbibed the knowledge. Modern leaders can pick up a lot of knowledge from the management schools and books and even from the internet.

Character has been defined as the sum total of an individual’s personality. The character of a leader will generally be studded with the qualities listed below. Napoleon is reported to have listed 90 qualities.

A leader must at all times be guided by the principles of natural justice and fair play. He cannot be seen to favour any individual or sub group within the group. If he does so, the group will disintegrate.

A leader must have courage. Courage is of two types, physical courage and moral courage. Physical courage is the ability to overcome fear of death or physical injury and carry out one’s duties. This is common at times of war or internal strife or natural disasters. Moral courage pertains to willing to stand up for what is right in the face of persecution or harassment or even death.

Integrity implies honesty in financial dealings. It also implies willingness to honour commitments made even when doing so can cause financial loss or inconvenience. There cannot be trust between the leader and the follower if the leader lacks integrity.

A leader must be loyal to his group. He must never criticize his group or its members in front of outsiders. He must do his best to protect their rights and interests.

A leader must be patriotic. He must love and respect his country.

Initiative is the willingness to grasp fleeting opportunities and to act boldly to achieve the goal. A leader must have this ability.

A leader must be capable of taking quick decisions and act. He cannot dither or allow things to drift.

A leader must have the determination to strive to achieve the goal in face of all adversity. He must not be deterred by failure or difficulties. He must be willing to keep trying till be succeeds.

A leader must be mature. He must not be upset by disagreement or dissent. He must not be excessively elated by success or demoralized by failure. He must be cool and calm and act according to the needs of the situation.

 We may not possess all the attributes or traits of a good leader. But we can study our weaknesses and strengths through introspection and consultations with our friends and confidants. Once we have done that, we can always improve. There is no dearth of information or schools of learning. All that we require is the desire and determination to improve ourselves.

We will teach you 12 chapters written by Col Bhaskar Sarkar in 12 different posts on Khabaratganj.com