Striving towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Pause for a moment and think about the leaders whom you admire.  Make a list of the common traits exhibited by them. These are the ones I can come up with.

• Ambitious (aspiring, hardworking, striving)
• Broad-minded (open-minded, flexible, receptive, tolerant)
• Caring (Appreciative, compassionate, concerned, loving, nurturing)
• Competent (Capable, proficient, effective, gets the job done, professional)
• Cooperative (Collaborative, team player, responsive)
• Courageous (bold, daring, gutsy)
• Dependable (reliable, conscientous, responsible)
• Determined (dedicated, resolute, persistent, purposeful)
• Fair-minded (just, unprejudiced, objective, forgiving, willing to pardon others)
• Forward-looking (visionary, foresighted, concerned about the future, sense of direction)
• Honest (truthful, has integrity, trustworthy, has character)
• Imaginative (creative, innovative, curious)
• Independent (self-reliant, self-sufficient, self-confident)
• Inspiring (uplifting, enthusiastic, energetic, humorous, cheerful, positive about the future)
• Intelligent (bright, smart, thoughtful, intellectual, reflective, logical)
• Mature (experienced, wise, has depth)
• Self-Controlled (restrained, self-disciplined)
• Straightforward(direct, candid, forthright)
• Supportive (helpful, offers assistance, comforting)

The basic one is being honest.

"I hope I shall always have the firmness and virtue enough to maintain, what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man."

-George Washington.

Honesty is absolutely essential to leadership. If people are going to follow someone willingly, they first want to assure themselves that the person is worthy of their trust. The benefits of honesty cannot be overstated. Failure of honesty poisons the team, damages the trust between people, and break down team cohesion. Being honest means that if you make promises to people you never break them. You are only good as your word: If you cannot deliver, do not offer your word.

Leaders need to have a vision about how things could be and to be clear enough about it that others will be able to see it themselves. This provides the capacity to walk a path towards the future with great confidence, and fosters shared values because we all know where we are heading. Leaders must have a destination in mind when asking others to join them on a journey into the unknown. Leaders should have a clear picture of what the organization will look like, feel like, and be like when it arrives at its goal in six months or six years.

 Leaders knows what he's doing (Competence) - he sets goals that are realistic and knows that the steps necessary to achieve them - and that creates confidence and motivation in  the team members.

The characteristics of honest, forward-looking, inspiring and competent refers to as being credible. People everywhere want to believe in their leaders. They want to have faith and confidence in them as people. People want to believe that their leaders' words can be trusted, that they have the knowledge and skill necessary to lead, and that they are personally excited and enthusiastic about the direction in which they are headed. All leaders must take their credibility seriously. This is the foundation on which leaders and team members will build grand dreams of the future. Without credibility, dreams will die and relationships will rot.

Just think about it this way. Imagine a time when you might need to borrow some money. Imagine that you are trying to get  a mortgage to build the house of your dreams, or to open a new business. You sit down across the desk from the loan officer at your local financial services company. After you have completed all the paperwork, the first thing that the loan officer is likely to do is check your credit.

Credit and credibility share the same root origin, credo meaning "I trust or believe." A loan officer checking your credit is literally checking trust and belief, searching to know whether you can make good on your word. The officer wants to know whether to believe you when you say that you will pay the loan back on time and with interest.

When it comes to leaders, in many respects team members act like loan officers. When leaders make promises ( that is, complete verbal promissory notes) about what they will do to guide the organization on a journey to an uplifting new future, people instinctly do a credit check. They ask themselves, "The last time made such a promise, did it get kept?" "Was it the truth, or was it just election pledge to get us to vote on?" "Can I trust this person?"

People also ask, "Do I see enough enthusiasm to keep us excited along the different road to the future?" "Can this leader inspire others to make the sacrifices necessary to make it through the end?" And they wonder, " Does this leader have the competence to get us from where we are now to where we'd like to be?" Does  this leader have a track record of accomplishment that would give us confidence for the current effort?"

If the answers to the above questions-about being honest, inspiring and competent- are yes, then people are likely to lend their time, talent and toil willingly. If the answers are no, then people are not likely to sign up to the mission. 

 More on this tomorrow. Have a great evening!