Leading means influencing. But the central question is, what is it in a man that makes others follow him or get influenced by him. The answer is: he is aleader. Then the question becomes: what makes a leader? This is a real big question which many have attempted to answer but in varied ways. Most ofthem have, however, ended up concluding that “leadership is a providential combinati of factors, such as character, talent and timing.” And each one ofus is endowed with these factors, albeit in different proportions. That’s why, leadership, in action all around, ofte goes unnoticed.
Take a look at this story. One day Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American philosopher and writer, and his son were trying to get a calf into a barn. Theypushed hard but the calf dug in his hooves and refused to move. A Irish housemaid saw their predicament. She was not educated but knew thelanguage of love and persuasion. She put her finger into the calf ’s mouth, let it suck her finger and gently led it into the barn. That is the “naturalleadership” at its best display. This story poses a battery of questions: Who asked the Irish woman to lead the calf? How did she succeed wherethe great philosopher failed? What is it that the calf had seen and felt in her that made it obey the woman? The answers to these questions,perhapsrun on these lines: she simply enacted the role of a servant rather than the master. She listened to the calf, and knowing what it wanted, put her hand into its mouth to suck. And by offering the comfort of sucking she first creat“trust” in the calf’s mind that ultimately made the calf happily follow her. |
