Punjab Congress crisis does not seem to end. Few months before the elections the Chief Minister was replaced. The very person who was instrumental in orchestrating the coup resigned within a week from the State Presidentship of the ruling party on the very same issues the coup was orchestrated. Change is never easy and can not be achieved in a day. It is a classic example of the short-sightedness of the Leader appointed with a different goal and squandering the opportunity of making the long-term impact in favor of short-term gains.
Leadership is often viewed as key to successful change (American Management Association, 1994). The new managers often find themselves stuck in a situation where it is forced to implement and execute decisions as per the directions of the senior management even if they do not firmly believe in them. It is a real test of the character of the leader. As a manager, you have to have an end goal in mind and understand you cannot change things overnight. It is misconceived superhero type of image which makes you take impulsive decisions. The Great Leaders are not great due to their flamboyant style but because of their vision and wisdom.
As a New Manager keep in mind you are not the hero taken straight out of the Saturday morning cartoons you probably watched as a child. Now that you have got the position and power it does not mean you can blast everything and everyone who is not in agreement. No one ever defies these great leaders because they don’t want to – such leaders are so just and wise that they have no need. But if anyone ever did cross them, they would be immediately be put to rights with a stern but fair judgment and unquestionable authority. These are the leaders that make us feel safe, that steer our ships through uncharted waters and that makes us feel like we can do anything as a team. So what does make a good leader? What is the minimum entry requirement? Of course, this is a somewhat abstract concept and not one that can be satisfied with a simple answer. But let’s give it the best shot. Ultimately, the best leader is the leader who gets results. And they do this by organizing, stabilizing, and motivating a team in order to get more out of them than they would be able to accomplish on their own. So put simply: does having this leader in place make a big difference to the team’s ability to accomplish goals? If the answer is yes, then the leader in providing a useful function and they are worth keeping in place. If the answer is no, then you could make the argument that the leader is not useful and is a waste of money or time. But this mentality, while accurate, is dangerous. Why? Because it leads to ‘performance reviews’ and other tests to identify the ability of the leader. A leader might then be punished or penalized if they should fail to meet monthly targets, or if they should be seen to be spending too much money. This seems to make sense when you think about leaders in terms of their ability to help teams meet goals but this is forgetting one small factor: time. Because a leader’s ability should not be measured in terms of their ability to accomplish X in T amount of time. If that is the only concern and the only aspect of performance that the leader is graded on, then in all likelihood they will end up making the wrong decisions for the good of the business and the good of the team. They will stick with what works, they will stick with what they know and they will avoid taking risks or evolving their business model to meet new challenges.
A good leader should be someone who is able to see the road ahead and to seemingly pre-empt the changes that will affect businesses most. These are the leaders who will be able to help a business to grow rather than just survive and who will be able to help avoid catastrophic failures that lead to layoffs or bankruptcy. And this same theory applies in other contexts too - the best parent is one who can not only keep the family happy and functioning well but who can also help to improve their circumstances so that they become happier and so that they become more fulfilled. They are also able to foresee potential challenges and set up contingencies so that they can deal with crises while remaining cool and level-headed. This is the true example of ‘Super Dad’ and ‘Super Mum’. So we can conclude that a great leader is able to help a team meet goals more effectively than they would otherwise and that these goals should be long-term goals rather than short-term. When a leader is stifled, it is very often because the leader above them is short-sighted. If management higher up is forcing quarterly reviews with strict, punitive measures for those seen to be underperforming then it will stifle a leader’s ability to grow and bring changes. This means that the goal needs to be right as well and in many ways, it’s that goal that we will see is the most important driving force behind a great leader.
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