“Waste no more time arguing about what a good leader should be. Be one” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
There is a whole industry devoted to the study and practice of leadership. Therefore, there is no dearth of material on leadership today. However, as Einstein once said, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” Experience is the best teacher. Based on my personal and professional experiences, I realized that the keys to becoming a leader were available to me even before I began working. I am not disparaging research on leadership. What I am saying is that for me personally, a common sense approach was all I needed to define an ideal in both my personal and professional life.
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If my experience can help a single individual, I would consider my writings successful.
Without further ado, I believe that the following qualities are critical to becoming a leader:
Becoming a leader requires common sense
“Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes” — Ralph Waldo Emerson.
In 2006, I was a freshly minted Chartered Accountant. At the time, I was leading the audit engagement of a global multinational financial services conglomerate. As is the case today, the level of sophistication of financial products in 2006 was incredibly high. These instruments were often referred to as ‘weapons of mass destruction.’ Financial engineering ensured oversight always fell short of business innovation. Derivatives were not only structured synthetically but were incredibly hard to account for in financial statements. What was baffling was that there were very few people who could explain these financial instruments to me in simple English. There were a lot of people who used technical words such as ‘hedge’ or ‘contango.’ Some were self-explanatory, others made me question the moniker itself. I learnt that the simplest way was to go to the root of the matter. Over countless cups of coffee and conversations with the product control group, I understood, in simple English, each derivative product and its accounting in the financial statements. The common sense questions I asked included the following: ‘What is the value of the product for the client? What is the value of the product for the firm? How does the firm make money? What affects the value of the product? How does the value change if the factors affecting it change?’
Ultimately, I understood the inner workings of financial instruments and therefore, the journal entries. I believe I was a much better leader because I had a grasp of the basic and gory details of each product. Quite often, in boardrooms and in offices, leaders hesitate to ask simple, common sense questions. A lot of emphasis is placed on speaking in parables to give the appearance of being wise and not as much emphasis is placed on asking the questions that solidify understanding. The art of asking great questions is indeed a very difficult skill to master, but the ingredient of a great question is strikingly simple : a healthy dose of common sense. On a macro scale, once you understand the basics, you can understand how the jigsaw is pieced together and therefore, understand the financial health of the firm.
Becoming a leader requires humility
“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?” — Carl Sagan
It takes special courage to say, ‘I don’t know.’ However, with that realization begins the greatest journey–learning. Unfortunately, humility is often thought of as a sign of weakness and narcissism a sign of confidence, even though the proverbial pied piper can lead the rats down a cliff. Becoming a leader requires personal growth and humility.
Becoming a leader requires an open mind
Throughout history, the largest empire created by a single individual was the Mongol empire created by Genghis Khan and his marauding hordes. Genghis is not the first name that comes to mind when I speak about humility. However, he had a very rare trait — an open mind. Throughout the lands he conquered, he would swap in the best practices of the cultures he subjugated. He was also open to all religions and allowed his subjects freedom to choose and practice their faith. In real life, if you can take the best from everyone and analyze your own inferior habits, I have no doubt you will be the sum of the best parts. However, most people I have met have a very closed mind. The willingness to change long held beliefs in the light of new evidence is incredibly rare. Most of what we see is perception and not the truth. A seeker of truth, therefore, begins with an unburdened conscience and an undying thirst for improvement. Without an open mind, there is no learning and without learning, there can be no growth and without growth, there can be no existence.
Becoming a leader requires empathy
Empathy is the ability of a CEO to relate to and to have breakfast with the blue collar worker in a factory while also hosting a working lunch in the boardroom with equal sophistication. You may progress faster alone, but you can also progress by building up the people around you. There is nothing more powerful than a group of people with a singular mission. I have come across very few leaders who empathize, give second chances, and continue to strengthen relations while the sands of time slip by. Also, I might ask — has the ability to laugh at one’s own self disappeared? i.e. to quote the Joker in Batman — why so serious?
Don’t misinterpret my article. There are other qualities that are also important. Hard work and intellect cannot be ignored. The reason I expounded on the ones above is because they are easy to understand, vital for success but rare to find in leaders today. For example, there have been many leaders who did not have a shred of humility and yet were tremendously successful. However, I would say that their success was, due in large part, to the humility of the other people in their lives supported them through good times and bad. Show me one leader without a follower and I will tell you that the term is redundant to begin with.
The simplest way of becoming a leader then, I would argue, is to become a good human being first.
This post was originally featured on Medium and was republished with permission from the author.
After a little celebrating, it was back to class and courses on formal and informal leadership.
