Leaders ‘by design’ are visionaries and almost always inspire their teams or followers. Beyond vision and inspiration, successful leaders also do something very powerful – align!

It is extremely important for a leader to align his or her interests and styles of functioning with those of others around them so perfectly as to achieve a well-harmonized togetherness in whatever they are engaged in. In my 18 years of work life in IT industry, I have found the following four abilities indispensable to achieve recognition and success for any leader working in a team environment:

Ability to work together: This is the most fundamental and non negotiable phase of alignment required in a team consisting of members with all diverse attributes (gender, geography, culture and others) - irrespective of the positions they hold in the organization, or the roles they play in the execution of a particular task or in handling a particular situation. This also helps the organization to be agile and engaged.

Ability to play together: I always look for the camaraderie and fun quotient in my teams, to assess my organization’s health index. Team members who engage and connect on a social plane beyond work create a fun filled environment. Cross functional team members getting together to explore hobbies; to unleash talent and celebrate occasions or achievements beyond work is a good metric to determine the ‘fun’ quotient. A leader’s ability to relate to his or her team as a friend is probably very critical to the success of any organization in the knowledge economy.