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Mr. Ramesh is conducting a Leadership Development session for the management employees of an organization. During the session, he asked them: “What is the most important responsibility of a leader?”  and few participants raised hands to answer. One of them told, “Getting the task done”. Another told, “Keeping the staff motivated”. Then followed some other answers – related to delegation, planning, etc. Mr. Ramesh listened to all the answers attentively and then told them, “All your answers indeed refer to various important activities that a leader has to take care of. But there is one particular thing that is most important and in a way all the various activities that you all have mentioned should actually be the stepping stones to make this one thing happen! So let me ask you again – What is the Number #1 job of a Leader ?”

What is Leadership?

To answer the question of what’s the most important responsibility of a leader, we should understand what leadership actually means. There are various definitions and different ways of looking at it – and I think they all distill into: Spreading A Culture. Yes, whether you are leading a corporate company, or a social enterprise or an NGO, or leading an initiative in your locality – by leading the activity – you are essentially spreading or taking forward a certain culture, and making things happen in that direction. So when can a leader be most effective, or in other words, when can the leader take forward the culture to the maximum possible extent? It is when he creates more leaders who continue taking the culture forward! So nurturing more leaders is the number #1 job of a leader!

Nurturing leaders is more like nurturing plants. It takes time. It needs patience. Most importantly it requires love. And when you are willing to put in the effort despite the uncertainty involved, then something beautiful begins to happen: the plants begin to grow and flowers begin to blossom! The same is the case with nurturing leaders. You don’t know who is going to explore his/her maximum potential. You don’t know whether they are really going to walk the long road ahead. But when you mentor them and assist them in their journey of leadership – remarkable things tend to happen! Tasks that used to be very challenging for your team will start becoming piece of cake! Your team’s accomplishments begin to grow exponentially!

Mr. Ramesh continued to explain to the participants, “Take any great leader in history or in present times. In any field. Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Elon Musk … They became effective leaders because they have spread a certain culture. And that is what you all have to do in your organization too – to spread a culture that makes enables everyone to explore their full potential. And to do this in the most effective way, you have to nurture more and more leaders around you who will continue to take the culture forward. That is the Number #1 Job of a Leader!”

Take a Congruence check!

We can do anything effectively only when we are congruent with it. Internal conflicts are what hinder our activities and it’s very important that we become aware of these and then align ourselves towards our priorities. Let’s see some of the aspects which cause incongruity towards leadership :

• Do you feel insecure when your team member is succeeding at a task?
• When a team member is unable to do a particular task, do you have the tendency to do it yourself instead of assisting him/her do the task better?
• Do you feel that you are not good enough to mentor and nurture your team members into effective leaders?

The above checklist is not to blame yourself and brood over it. It is to become aware of any possible internal conflicts and most importantly to use that knowledge to start developing congruence within yourself. Always remember: if you were in a certain way yesterday, last week, last year and last decade – it doesn’t mean that you have to be the same person today, tomorrow, and in the years that follow. You can MAKE A DECISION NOW TO CHANGE. All the very best!