If there is one thing that is the most critical element of success in any profession, it is “leadership”. Due to the importance of leadership, successful business firms invest enormous amount of resources in identifying and grooming future leaders who can sustain the success of the firm. The same goes to any other field. But, the debate on who is a leader and what characteristics define leadership is an ongoing one. Mr. Babu Vincent’s article on Manmohan Singh in IndiaSpecial adds to that debate.

What matters more for a leader- style or substance?

Nobody will disagree that “substance” is essential for the sustained success of a leader. However, it is the leadership “style” that is a matter of disagreement.

As Mr. Babu Vincent pointed out in his comments, there are broadly two “leadership styles”

Category 1:

Charismatic, larger than life, aggressive, extroverted – examples include Winston Churchill, Jack Welch of GE  and Lee Iococca of Chrysler.

Category 2:

Down to earth, shy, introverted, non-noticeable – examples include Abraham Lincoln, Azim Premji of Wipro.

One of the most influential Management Gurus of modern times, Jim Collins, discusses about “leadership” in his best-selling book – Good to Great. He did exhaustive research on some of the firms that were outperforming their respective peer group and were transformed from “good” to “great” companies. Based on his research findings, he concludes that leaders who transformed each of these 11 companies exhibited what he calls “Level 5 leadership“. According to him, there are 5 levels of leadership:

Level 1: Highly capable individual

Makes productive contributions through talent, knowledge, skills, and good work habits.

Level 2: Contributing Team member

Contributes to the achievement of group objectives; works effectively with others in a group setting.

Level 3: Competent manager:

Organizes people and resources toward the effective and efficient pursuit of predetermined objectives.

Level 4: Effective Leader:

Catalyzes commitment to and vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision; stimulates the group to high performance standards.

Level 5: Executive Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical combination of personal humility plus professional will.

Interestingly, Level 5 leaders display the 2 traits of personal humility and professional will.

Click here to see more about this paradoxical combination.

Jim Collins also finds that Level 5 leaders are extremely modest; they rarely talk about themselves but talk about the firm, about other’s contributions and usually play down their own role in the success of the firm.

He adds that “Level 5 leadership” is complemented by some other “drivers” -

1. First who: Getting the right people to work in the team

2. Stockdale paradox: Confronting the most brutal facts of their current reality, yet maintain absolute faith that they will ultimately succeed

3. The Flywheel: Knowing and acting upon the fact that good-to-great transformations do not happen overnight but it starts one step at a time, gradually building up momentum and finally succeed.

4. The Hedgehog Concept: A hedgehog knows only one big thing but it knows it very well. The hedgehog is simple but is almost always successful

5. A Culture of Discipline: Good-to-great organizations have three forms of discipline

a. Disciplined people,

b. Disciplined thought

c. Disciplined action

Not everyone agrees with this concept of leadership. Tom Peters, another influential thought leader, does not agree with this model and is highly critical of it. There are other thinkers who have expressed disagreement with Jim Collins. This again confirms the fact that there is no unique leadership style (yet) that will guarantee sustained success in any profession.

Looking from Jim Collins’ perspective, Manmohan Singh is a Level 5 leader. One caveat though – his leadership is more similar to a CEO of a business firm who has the full backing of the Governing Board (Sonia and Rahul Gandhi). If he is evaluated as a political leader, he will most likely be judged as someone with very modest success.

But does he care how history will judge him as a political leader ? I doubt.

Popularity: 42%

Asif Ali Zardari, the President of Pakistan called the Terrorist as Non State Actors. Subsequently, even the Prime Minister Gilani also came up with this term. Manmohan Singh, Condoleezza Rice followed suit.

I had this confusion as to who were these Non State Actors – Terrorists living in one’s country with no known state OR people acting on behalf of illegal entities OR someone who did not belong to a particular state or boundary ?

Hence decided to look the term on Wikipedia.

As per Wikipedia,

Non-State Actors, in international relations, are actors on the international level which are not states. The admission of non-state actors into international relations theory is inherently a rebuke to the assumptions of realism and other “black box” theories of international relations, which argue that interactions between states are the main relationships of interest in studying international events

The various types of Non State Actors includes

• Non Governmental Organisation
• Multi National Corporations
• Terrorist Organisations
• Criminal Organisations
• Religious Groups etc

Coming to the point – Zardari said these terrorists were Non State Actors. What it means is that they have State Actors, Non State Non Actors, State Non Actors and the many combinations.

Manas Chakravarthy of Hindustan Times explained it well , I thought. Do give it a read !

Image Credit: DarkPatator

Popularity: 9%

The Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh wins the vote of confidence with a win of  275 votes. What a suspense thriller it was !

The tally.

541 Members attended the parliament.

275 Votes for Manmohan Singh’s led Congress Government

256 Votes against Manmohan Singh.

10 Votes undecided.

With a majority of 19 votes denoting Manmohan Singh’s win and his V-sign when the vote of confidence was passed, shown across all news channels and sites, really proves our Prime Minister is confident.

This could be a turn over for India over the Nuke deals, which bought the Governing party to this stage, and now many a things in hold like the Nuke deals, Pay-commission may have a new face going ahead in the last few months of their govern.

Will this win still retain the goverment’s credibility and confidence on people at large, or is it just the PM’s confidence which has grown stronger?

I would leave all of us with this  thought to ponder upon.

Popularity: 16%

The Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (the congress led government) stands for a Vote of Confidence after the left wing allies withdrew thier support in protest with the controversial civilian Nuclear concord.

While Mr. Singh has promised the government that it would prove its majority, and the war is on for the last 36 hours, and the vote is at a close point to be called in a few minutes.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members showed bundles of money from a bag in the air, causing an uproar in the Parliament and alleging that they had been offered bribes to support the Vote of Confidence.

Mr Chatterjee (the hon Speaker) called it a “very sad day” for the Indian parliament, adding: “Nobody will be spared if found guilty.”

What would the result now be? Who would win?

With the left withdrawing their support, the government can now rely on only 226 members in the 543-seat parliament, which would now need 46 more to be absolutely sure of a majority, Congress holding its 153 ceats and BJP holding 130 seats, for the win congress would need a majority and even a single vote may make a difference.

Hold your breath, to watch whether Congress would win the Vote of Confidence or would it loose it? More News to flow in soon.

Popularity: 13%