Vitamin C’s for achievement and leadership – II

We are not all tangible, people backed by sound outcome-based plans. Nor is leadership something you can provide a prescriptive pill for and imbibe. But, the more your exposure, the more you learn, you do get to widen your minds which helps build a leadership outlook. 

I go back to look at the fundamental question – ‘Are leaders born or made?’

When I think about that premise, I think of so many of the leaders I know, some are truly born with the skills while some become phenomenal leaders as part of their journeys. 

In India, we have a strange context of growing up, we focus on building up our IQ constantly, so we outperform as individual contributors, but the minute we are thrown into leadership roles, we start to struggle. This is because as leaders, the fundamental thing you need is EQ – Emotional Quotient and that’s something we need to teach ourselves. In this search of higher emotional quotient values, here’s some thoughts on how to inculcate and imbibe them. 

Here we continue with the C-words that spilled over from last week… 

Conflict

“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” – Thomas Paine

There is no life nor are there relationships without conflict. The basic premise is that conflict exists and will happen. It’s what you choose to do with it and how you deal with it that matters. There is potential in conflict to be a bridge for positive outcomes and build a common goal but there’s also power in conflict to be negative and create long lasting destruction. The ability to handle and manage conflict can make or break you as a leader so it’s good to invest time in learning how to manage it. 

Commentary

“Everybody wants to have a commentary on my life, like they are actually living it. Cool, comment all you want but I’m the one that’s living it.” – Katy Perry

People always have an opinion and often judgement too. Commentary in this context is referring to the background noise or the comments people tend to make on you and your life. If it is relevant and the feedback is coming from a point of view to help you grow or learn, use it to do so, but if it is directed at you to pull you down, just ignore it and keep moving forward. 

Confidence 

“Confidence isn’t walking into a room thinking you’re better than everyone, it’s walking in not having to compare yourself to anyone at all.” – Unknown

Every role you play as a leader needs self-belief and to perform to the best there is, you need to know your strengths and weaknesses and more than all you need conviction in what you do. Confidence is at the core of leadership and needs to be nurtured as it will spill over into every aspect of leadership. Confident people are known to be positive and happy and form long lasting relationships and are also great influencers. Leadership without confidence is incomplete.  

Courage

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain

What keeps you going beyond fear and what keeps you strong in the face of it? Courage is what makes the difference between good and great leadership. Courage has a relationship with failure and failure has a relationship with resilience which in turn has one with success. So courage and success are interlinked and you need the ability to face and overcome fear and that’s through the course of courage. 

Carpe Diem 

Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary. Don’t do it for the world! Do it for yourselves!

That in closing is what we all need to do, go out there, make your voice count and make your mind and soul matter beyond just everyday leadership at work… 😊 

Shreya Krishnan

Vice President - Marketing and Communications at Aon India Insurance Brokers

Shreya is a CSR Specialist and Corporate Grooming Consultant. Her interests lie in Activism, Dance, Theatre, Poetry, Blogging, Modelling, Acting. She considers herself an Earth Warrior and is an Event Anchor and Trainer. She is a Pageant Winner and public speaker.