There is a lot of material and lot’s of ideas, methodologies, definitions and frameworks that create confusion about what leadership is, what it isn’t and how it’s place in organizations and communities is changing.
From values-based models that suggest that you can become a leader by switching on certain attributes within yourself, to models that suggest a sort of mythical quality of standing tall and seeing into the far distance where mere mortals cannot see, the proposition seems to be that leadership is either neatly encapsulated in such and such framework or some central universal theme.

Discussions on leadership almost always start with some wisdom – freshly articulated in some cases and too-often-used in others- on the difference between a manager and a leader – like “management is about doing things right” and “leadership is about doing the right thing“. Sounds nice but that’s about it.

The reality is that leadership is not one thing, or a particular kind of person, or a special type of activity, or even a different way of doing the same thing. It is many things and processes and activities and ideas that some people can harness into a personal framework for optimum performance and collective success.

To cultivate leadership ability is actually about personal discovery, the conscious and sometime sub-conscious creation of a personal toolkit that helps to navigate through internal conflict and self-doubt, an awareness of one’s strengths and limitations, the ability to cope with loss without losing, and an ability to face reality and deal with it.

Others see this, and they start to walk alongside..

For each person, the path is different, and so is the form and substance. Like Gandhi on the one hand, and Jinnah on the other. Like Mother Teresa in the midst of the poor and wretched, in one part of the world – and Rommel and his Afrika Corps in a completely different theater.

by Asad Zaidi, CEO, MDi Pakistan