Saturday, June 30, 2012

LEADERSHIP and FOLLOWERSHIP QUALITIES - YOU GET THE LEADERS YOU DESERVE


YOU GET THE LEADERS YOU DESERVE
Qualities of Leadership and Followership
Musings
By
VIKRAM KARVE

Leadership presupposes two things:

1. A LEADER
and
2. MEN CAPABLE OF BEING LED (Followers).

A stag cannot lead an army of lions.

A lion cannot persuade an army of stags to follow.

What then is required?

A Lion leading Lions

Both the leader and the followers must be “LIONS”

We then have a LION leading an army of LIONS - and an army of lions led by a lion will be victorious. 

In other words, the qualities of  leaders and followers are very similar.

The chief of these qualities are:

        (1)     Knowledge.
        (2)     Skill.
        (3)     Determination.
        (4)     Endurance.
        (5)     Courage.
        (6)     Cunning.
        (7)     Imagination.
        (8)     Confidence.

No one is greater than the other, but the first of all is knowledge.

Paraphrased by me from a quote by Brevet Colonel J.F.C. Fuller, D.S.O. in his article: “Moral, Instruction and Leadership” in Journal of the Royal United Services Institution, Vol. LXV (1920)

We get the leaders we deserve. 

Are we “LIONS” - then we will get leaders who are “LIONS”

And if behave like meek “STAGS” (deer) we will get leaders who also behave like deer, meek and weak.

2 comments:

  1. disagree - mostly because the way you have put it. It appears as if you are saying that a leader can only lead if the followers too have leadership skills

    ReplyDelete
  2. Last year, at a Toronto strategy consultant seminar organized by Robinson Leadership, I've learned that honesty is also a very important quality of a great leader nowadays. Leaders have to be honest. In this way, they will surely succeed in their business and life.

    ReplyDelete

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