Leadership traits!

In the academic world of communication studies, there is an ongoing research to understand leadership and what leaders do. There is no consensus on the definition of leadership let alone the best leadership style. Several researchers talk about leadership as a style, some talk of leadership in terms of the traits, while others discuss about situational leadership. There are many more perspectives that these researchers employ in studying leadership.

I won’t discuss other perspectives on leadership here and will also not delve into the aforementioned leadership perspectives. However, I would like to share the views of the former president of India, Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam. Dr. Kalam refers to six important traits that leaders must possess. (As a student of communication studies, I would think that he employs traits theory)

As per these traits, the leader must:

1. Have a vision
2. Travel unexplored paths
3. Know to manage success and failure
4. Have courage to take decision
5. Have nobility in management
6. Communicate with the team on a constant basis

Of all the above-mentioned traits, Dr. Kalam talks in length about the third one. He says that leaders should not only know how to manage success but what is more important is that they should know how to manage failure. He gives example of an incident from his own life back in 1970s. Dr. Kalam was the project director and was leading a team that was responsible to put the satellite Rohini into the orbit by 1980.

The project was initiated in 1973 and the team was well-equipped with all the facilities. However, in the first attempt in 1979, the satellite failed to launch properly in the orbit. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chairman Satish Dhawan immediately addressed the press conference and took responsibility of the failure upon him. He told the media that the team worked really hard and that for the next attempt, the team will be provided with more technological support. The next year in 1980, under Dr. Kalam’s supervision, the team launched the satellite successfully. It was again time to address the press conference. This time the chairman asked Dr. Kalam to talk to the media. He wanted Dr. Kalam and his team to take the laurels.

I wonder how many of us can actually do that! It’s always easier to blame people than to take the blame upon oneself. However, what we learn from this incident is that as leaders, we must always support our team and trust them.

If you are interested in listening to this interview from which this article has been transcribed, then please click here.

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