Being
Shepherd
Leadership lifestyle for the new-age
CEO
Chapter 2
While
the Bible too refers to Jesus Christ as the ‘Good Shepherd’, for a good reason
that can very well be aligned to modern day management needs, I will steer
clear from any religious or cultural references. Before we dive into Being
Shepherd, the one who leads from behind, I would like to seed a thought with
you.
Most
leaders believe in ‘leading from the front’, but what is the origin of this
concept?
History
reflects that the earliest of leaders in a structured environment were the
Kings and Generals of an Army. The Kings were the equivalent of today’s
Promoters or Investors. They appointed the Generals who got the job done on the
battle field. Thus, legend has shared many a stories of a King rewarding a
brave fearless solider by promoting him at the helm of an army.
The
position of the General was irrefutable as long as he had the Kings favour.
They lead an army of soldier’s, who never challenged or questioned the Generals
decision or intent. To do so could cost them their life. Thus, fear was a great
motivator and execution strategies were effortlessly implemented. Creativity
was the privilege of the top few. Most existed for their brawn and not their
brains.
The
Generals with their soldiers in tow faced the enemy head on. Remember movies like
Braveheart and Gladiator. These heroes were cherished for their bravery. And
then there were times when the Kings chose to play the role of the General as
well. They themselves took the initiative of taking the enemy head-on. Think
Aurenzeb, Napoleon and Genghis Khan. They all led from the front.
While
kings and generals also had to strategize, they had to continue honing and
displaying the basic yet primary skill of braving the enemy face-on, much like
a foot soldier.
That
they could strategize was an additional advantage. But brawn's were an essential
need. If you only had the brains, you could be a chief advisor, a minister but
never the general. A king lacking the brawns or skill to lead on a battle
ground was often ridiculed. Sometimes they had to step off the horse and fight
the enemy along-side the soldier. They had to lead from the front.
However,
in today’s era where the world is readying itself for a new MOOC (Massive
Online Open Courses) driven educational concept, doom awaits the CEO who
chooses to sit on the chair of an executive and starts to make sales pitches or
takes upon himself to be involved in the process of writing marketing briefs or
makes it his responsibility of personally educating and nurturing the
executives several levels below.
This
is not to say that a CEO should not be concerned about the quality of a sales
pitch or an effective marketing brief or the development and nurturing of his
team. This is to say that the CEO cannot manage such responsibilities the same
way as he did as a manager.
There
is a need to hold back the strong urge to jump into the battle field and
emulate the Generals of the past. Many such Generals have been etched in
history and you will too if you fail to adapt to the needs of the future. And I
say future, not today, only because
in this era, future becomes today, faster than ever before.
You
may also note that when the self-proclaimed ‘Greatest Nation of the World’,
better known as United States of America wages war on multiple nations
simultaneously, the General sits in his office and controls his armies from
behind. Not the front.
And
that is exactly what CEO’s of large Multi Nationals also do. Lead and manage
the various companies across the globe from behind albeit knowingly or
unknowingly. Sometimes they don’t even visit some critical and well performing
markets for years on end.
What
is it that these leaders do that most others cannot?
They
lead like a shepherd from behind.
Sounds
simple, well not really. Most fail to lead from behind!
Leading from behind is not the same as
being hands off. It’s an extremely hands on approach, that needs far more
efforts on the leaders part than leading from the front. This needs to be
analyzed and understood clearly which we will in subsequent chapters.
But first, we need to understand why is it that often
we hear of mid-level managers, who are rewarded with greater responsibility and
larger teams, lose their jobs owing to sheer incompetence or consistent
performance failure soon after assuming the new role.
Think,
what is the reason that hinders many successful mid-level managers and small to
mid-size organization CEOs’ from succeeding in greater roles, bigger
organizations or geographically dispersed companies? Growth often spells their
doom and are casually tagged as ‘not being ready for a larger role’ or simply
‘incompetent’.
But
how can a person suddenly shift from highly competent to highly incompetent
just because he got a greater responsibility. It is impossible for competence
to shrink so starkly. What lacks is the ‘need for a shift in attitude of self
and towards the team that needs to me managed’. They fail because they keep
leading while banking on the same fundamentals and principles that they used in
previous phases of their career. They lead from the front, like a General from
the past that are best read about in history books.
Today
such leaders fail to create history. They become history.
This
series will help you transcend the journey from a small scale entrepreneur,
mid-level manager or a CEO of a mid-sized company to reaching the top of that
leadership role that perhaps was eluding you until now or is waiting to be
embraced by you.
This
series will not provide you with any scientific tools to bring about a great
new dimension in yourself that you did not possess till date. Such claims are
baseless and bogus. This series will help You understand ‘You better’ & ‘Be
better’.
It
will help you access yourself from within and provide indicators to be more
insightful and objective on your own style of leadership. It will share with
you the kind of shepherd like ‘leadership lifestyle’ that you need to possess.
Very importantly, it will hold your hand through a very critical change
management process to facilitate a smooth transition from a front leader to the
one who leads from behind in order to help you create a highly effective self-motivated
team that offers itself with complete
free will to elevate the
organizations objectives.
Note
that the one line that forms the genesis of this ‘leadership lifestyle’ will be
repeated multiple times over.
Lead
from behind as a shepherd does to his sheep; align only those who go astray.
You
will see that each time you too will start to find newer interpretations of
this line. Your interpretation often might go beyond the written word yet
closer to your own specific needs and challenges at hand. Do please go onto my
website www.beingshepherd.com and share your interpretations and positive
experiences on my blog http://manavdhanda.blogspot.in .
So
now that the context is set and we understand that leading from behind is a
concept from an era when Generals rode on horsebacks and lead from the front to
defeat the enemy; in order to achieve victory in today’s era there needs to be
a shift in leadership style by leading from the behind.
But
what exactly are the specifics that one needs to inculcate and how does one
differentiate between the one who leads from the front or behind?
To
know about that, stay tuned for the next issue. Until then, keep leading J
www.beingshepherd.com / http://manavdhanda.blogspot.in
