Develop Your Leadership

Do the attributes of leadership differ in different spheres, at different
levels and at different times? Personality traits do not lead us to a
common denominator (perhaps in leadership research the really
significant aspects of personality have not yet been investigated by the
social psychologists) but they do go into differentiating the nature and
leadership style. The general thesis which emerges out of this collection supports the view that
leadership in process, not a person, involving the leader, the followers and their situation. A man
may lead towards a particular action who is not otherwise his followers.
The natural leader has willing followers. The charismatic one enthusiastic ones; in the case of the
latter the power rises from the deeps of personality, he arouses in his followers a sense of
fulfillment, and he has a cause. Gandhi, Nehru and swami Vivekananda are put in the category
of charismatic leaders. The rational leader is neither worshipped nor followed faithfully; rather
he is obeyed and acquiesced in. like Sardar Patel and Morarji Desai. Lal Bahadur Shastri
qualifies for this role.
Leadership of course appeals to force and depends on force. Calls “short-cut” of leadership type.
the type that looks to “radical solutions”, without counting the cost.
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Why is a leader followed?
Do the followers’ considerations vary in different spheres, at different levels, and at different
times? Followers have various considerations, some conflicting. In supporting or even being
loyal to their leaders. Self-interest is in one consideration.In the situation the follower knows
what he wants and the leader comes to him as a broker and the deal is made. This function
which the emergent leaders now perform was in some measure discharged by the bureaucracy
in the colonial era. The bureaucratic leadership, however, did not act as broker, for the welfare
services were then not the main concern of the government and in the limited area where the
local officers could cater for the needs of the villagers, they went by the rule and their direct
contact with the village world did not extend further down than the village headman, rais or the
landlord.
What are the unique features of South Asian Leadership?
Two extreme phenomena appear in the wide range of South Asian Leadership: the self-
sacrificing sufferer bound to a cause, and the self-seeking pursuer of power. The former
dominates the nationalist phase, the latter the independence era. Politics is, and has always
been, the game of power. But India had a short spell of the Gandhian politics of suffering.
Perhaps it was not an innovation but the revival of a peculiarly Indian tradition. In either case it
is considered as a special Indian phenomenon.