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The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

Move Beyond Logic

Binu T Paul
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Binu T Paul
The world steps aside for the person who knows where he is going. When Mahatma Gandhi, returned to India, people sneered at his idea of making it a free country. A similar reaction would have confronted Michael Dell, had he mentioned about building the largest PC company when the likes of HP and Honeywell were doing the rounds. Had they refrained from their visions merely guided by the logic of others, today India wouldn’t have a free economy stand and the IT industry would have been bereaved of a customized PC expert like Dell. In short, to be a successful leader, defy logic.

Each person, who may have landed as a leader needs a massive vision. “Goals are measurable and logically possible while vision is illogical and might look difficult and impossible to achieve. A leader has a goal in the direction of the vision,” said Vivek Mansingh, President VTG & Unified Communication Group India at Cisco Systems. Certain snaps of history would show many such people who were forced by circumstances to take up a broad vision without being prepared for it and then set their path to success through experience and guidance.

Within the IT industry itself there are scores of examples, like Azim Premji, who was another Stanford student and was overnight entrusted with the responsibility of Wipro. If wished, he could have passed on the responsibilities to experienced personnels, but it was the zeal to learn and accept the situation that makes him an admirable leader. So, are leaders born or made? As per statistics, only 10 percent of leaders are born, the rest of the 90 percent are made or trained. In Mansingh’s word, “Everyone has the leadership skill hidden within and it’s only a matter of positioning in the right way”.

The most important criteria to project oneself as a good leader is passion. It is the absolute commitment to the vision you want to achieve. A large part of the human brain does not work on logic. When mind does not work on logic, it follows the emotional signals. Passion helps us to charge that large part of brain by which one can achieve these illogical goals. This passion is mostly portrayed through better communication of your ideas and also via commanding enough respect and trust as a leader. In an organizational setup, co-operation and least favoritism will help one to earn the trust of others. And talk about better communication, U.S. President Barrack Obama, whose ‘Yes We Can’ speech inspired every parts of the world, portrays the best example. It’s all about communicating to make the listener feel to be an important part of your vision.

A look at the surroundings will show up many good managers, who are guided by the logic and those who brave those logic to achieve desired results are leaders in the true sense. They tend to stand as the change agents portraying exceptional execution skills and follow up on every step taken and continues to challenge any opposing situation. To be the phenomenal cream of the crop, it doesn’t take thousands of skills rather just one powerful skill that would one apart from others. Whether, it’s the simplicity and charisma of Narayana Murthy or the boldness of Indira Gandhi or the tolerant and non-violent attitude of Mahatma Gandhi, each of these strong personal skills make them idols for everyone. All it takes is to build up the obsession nurturing the key skill and even after years your ways will be remembered and admired, as it’s beyond articulation.
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