One such discussion ( and I am writing this article with the person's consent) led to a person expressing unhappiness and discontent over everything that wasn't right. This ranged from basic administration issues to management issues at the highest level. After elaborating on all of these this person made a final comment, "Nothing changes, no one accepts feedback, everyone just keeps throwing things at me, overburden me. I feel completely engrossed in silly activities. My real skills are not utilized. There is just too much politics. How can I be expected to deliver something special?"

The person, I know, has a lot of energy and a lot of potential and I was saddened to listen to all the reasons (real or not) that have been accepted, at least in the mind, for non-progression, if not already regression.

I asked this person only one question,"Assuming that all this is true and I am sure it is true for any organization that you may ever be a part of, who's growth is it affecting?" The answer was obvious it didn't need to be answered. However it took a long time for him to get to the answer "Mine". 

I then asked him,'if it is affecting your performance, your career, your growth, your happiness, your life - then why don't you be a leader, assume leadership, make a plan and change it. Why don't you change it for yourself, forget the company."

Then came the most pressing statement,"How can I be a leader when I don't even have people reporting to me?"

I told him that to me it more seems like an effect than a cause.

"What would you do if you have people reporting to you?" I asked.

I got a complete list of tasks that he shouldn't be doing and would hence get delegated. This would free his time and now he can focus on more important things.

"What are these more important things?" I asked

Lots of things were mentioned. These were mostly things that he should be doing anyways, however, feels that their isn't time to do them.

"How many people, do you know, who will be inspired to follow you, for you to accomplish the tasks that you just mentioned?" I asked.

There wasn't a reply to this question but it helped in setting a reversal of thoughts and we reached to lot of interesting conclusions and actions. However the reason I am writing this article on this topic is that this isn't the first time I've came across this mindset. The mindset that assumes these falsifications like:

"I don't have people reporting to me so I can't be a leader."

"my designation is so and so  - I am not in a leadership role."

"What leadership?? we don't even have basic things in place."

"I am hired to do ____ . what leadership you are talking about. I am doing my job fine."

"People are motivated. They are happy. So I guess am a good leader."

You will be amazed to learn that a recent survey conducted by one of the largest research company in the world on the topic - "why people don't assume leadership?" concluded in 82% respondents (the respondents were all in positions of General Managers and above in companies of a minimum size of 5Million USD) citing at least one of the above five statements as a reason. How absurd is that?

There are only FOUR statements you ever need to know about leadership:

Examine a few names, any names - say for instance Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mother Teressa, Mahatma Gandhi, Narayan Murthi, Your CEO, Steve Jobs, Dhirubhai Ambani or even Dr. Manmohan Singh, think of any name that you think is a leader. I have one simple question to ask.

Did any on these people when they started out in life have a leadership role, have people reporting to them, have basic things in place (ya right!), have a job that they could do fine or have the luxury to be happy because people were simply motivated? 

The answer to every single question is NO.  Were they leaders? YES.

They were and became even better leaders because they believed they will be, because they NEVER accepted the current situation as realities of life, because they had the guts to state their visions and be compelled by them and because they never had a choice to state 'because(s)' for non achievement. The reason they didn't have a choice is that they themselves made the choice redundant. A classic example of this is a statement once made by Muhammed Ali, he said, "I am the best. I said it even before I knew I was." Simple!

Whenever I have stated these things to a group of people either in a training program or in coaching conversations, I've often been asked a very valid question. I am sure a lot of you will be thinking that as well. The question people ask is this - Lets say I believe, I came up with a vision and people even get inspired by my plans - is this enough to ensure that I'll be a good leader and achieve what I set out for? or Does it mean I'll become, lets say, a Dhirubhai Ambani.

There are two answers to this question - 

One, everybody is different and NO, you will not become a Dhirubhai Ambani because you aren't him. You don't know what his motivation and more importantly instigation in life was and what he talked to himself about as a result. You don't know what his insights were that resulted in his visions. So there is no point in emulating someone's vision because you do not have access to their insights and experiences. Therefore you need your own that then you would truly believe in. 

Second, having done that does it ensure that you will be a great leader and achieve your goals. Well, that is what is the test of leadership. You have to remember all goals and all missions will not be accomplished by Christmas, no mater how much you want it to be. Because it hasn't happened by Christmas do you go on or do you not? What if it doesn't happen by next christmas as well? When do you finally say "lets move on".. The very simple answer is that if you find yourself asking these questions and seriously considering giving up, then the belief wasn't their in the first place. There was only a small desire and you gave it a shot! Thats it.

Once you have a belief, an insight that has resulted in a vision, my friend, you never give up on the vision (or the goal), you may do so on the process to achieve that goal. I can assure you that every great leader has come to the same crossroads where they are questioning or doubting their abilities and I can also assure you that they all start all over again with the four things written above - they self talk themselves to believing, they refuse to accept the current situation (or failure) AS REALITY, they have the guts (TO AGAIN) state a vision, a plan and keep going and barring their own failures (their mistakes that they can improve upon themselves) they do not accept any because(s) (that is external factors). ... Leadership..

It may seem daunting and even demotivating at times to learn that if this is the case, then, I don't even have a start point in sight. That I don't even have a vision or a goal that I will truly like to achieve, something that I believe in and will try to accomplish at any cost. 

It isn't that tough. On the contrary if you have started thinking like this or feeling like this, the first step is already taken. 

The most effective step to acquire insights, probably the only way as well is self awareness. The more you question yourself, the more you learn about your self - your thoughts and why, your patterns (in decision making, in choices) and why, your goals and WHY (you'll be amazed how may of these will just NOT BE yours)... the more then you will be able to identify inconsistencies around you that just shouldn't be there. You will then have a desire for change because post an insight it feels very stupid to accept a 'false' reality. It might not be something big but it will lead you to 'there' for sure. 

The most important thing however is - Start!