These are indeed some very commonly asked questions. At the same time, very intriguing too. Our own answers to these very questions form our perceptions of the word called 'leadership'. 

Much attention and value is attached in an organization towards choosing or promoting people for leadership roles. Everyone who doesn't get 'that' job is constantly wondering, "What am I missing? What do I need to do?" and believe me most people who do get 'that' job are often wondering, "Why me? What did I do right?" 

What is strange though is the fact that people promoting or choosing leaders are also unable to provide articulate and precise answers to these questions. Most often I've heard statements like "Not there yet" - "Doesn't have that leadership skill" - "Something is missing. Doesn't fit in."

I've met, associated with, interviewed, questioned plenty of CEO's and MD's on this subject. However, I have come across very few people who have been able to actually answer 'What is missing?" In fact only one or two at most. 

The reason for this may be that we are all wanting leaders but we fail to understand what leadership may be. 

So what is leadership?

As the dictionaries of the world may suggest - Leadership is the action of leading a group of people. This sounds fairly simple and true but what the definition misses out is - Leading for what?  Why should a group of people be willing to be led by you?

Leadership, in my mind, is the ability to inspire and guide people through compelling and articulate vision for a better future for people, at large. Whether it is an organization or a country - there isn't another premise that anyone needs before choosing a leader. Everything else is secondary.

People (or those who will follow the leader) are inspired by visions, not by the person. Actually the person too, but that is only later. If you have the insight to visualize, you will have the ability to lead. If you only have the ability to lead, in the absence of a very compelling vision that automatically inspires others, then, you are a very good manager at best- BUT not a leader. History stands testimony to this statement.

Take a look back, a few years ago. An ordinary man, with no real standing in society, with no money, no wealth and at the beginning - certainly no power as well, transformed our nation with just one vision that people bought. Reading 'Bhagwat Geeta' in South Africa, he realized that the greatest of conflicts can be resolved through non-violence. What led him to that conclusion, I don't know. He got the insight, stated the possibility, lived it himself and people followed. What is even more compelling about his insight is the fact that Mahatma Gandhi actually achieved it in another country. He managed to change laws for Indians in a country that despised Indians or Coolies as they were called at the time.

Put a spotlight on any leader that you may like or dislike. You are likely to find a vision behind the person. If you don't find a vision behind the person, I can guarantee, that leadership was very short lived. Lets take Dr. Manmohan Singh for example: Right from the days of Narasimha Rao government to today, at least, economically (I personally believe even otherwise, it just doesn't get highlighted enough) he has always had a vision, always had an insight. From liberal economies to nuclear energies. People like him. Within his party, they follow him. To put it further in perspective - no other Non-Gandhi leader has survived. No other leader survived. Be it Sitaram Kesri or Narasimha Rao himself. They couldn't define - leading for what?

Take Mayawati - for her audience - she definitely has a vision for the Dalit community. We might find her leadership to be short lived if the vision doesn't expand as has happened in many other cases. However, she does have one. Hence she is a leader that people follow.

Any sustained leadership WILL have an insightful, vision behind it. No matter what be his shortcomings, Narendra Modi, has an absolutely non corrupt progressive government in Gujrat. Sheila Dixit has progressed Delhi. Equally on the other side, there are leaders who never get re-elected, simply because they are not able to communicate  - leading for what?

What is important to remember is that Visions arise out of Insights. You cannot just create one just like that. You can but you yourself are likely to not emotionally and passionately believe in it and therefore neither will anyone else.

So the answer to the question that Can leaders be developed or leadership be taught? is a clear NO because how can any one person define for another - Lead for what? 

If the qualities already aren't there, can leadership emerge in a person? the answer is YES, because it depends on an insight, that can actually appear at anytime, in a flash. Most corporate success stories are examples of this. However I'll give you one right now: I am dramatizing it a bit, but the story is 100% true. 

There was a man who had been working as a clerk in a Doctors clinic all his life, almost fifteen years or so. Obviously no leader, this guy. One day another doctor visited the clinic. While waiting to meet his doctor friend, he started chatting to the clerk. The clerk was very curious about the kettle this man was carrying. The kettle, the doctor explained, was some sort of a formula for a medicine, that the doctor had come to sell. The formula excited the clerk and he wanted to buy it from the doctor. The doctor couldn't understand why the clerk will want this and what use will he have for it. However the clerk offered him his entire life savings of 600$ (we are talking 1920's 30's) for the kettle and the formula. An hour later after the meeting of both the doctors, wherein formula basically got rejected, this doctor offered to take the clerk on his proposal and sold it to the clerk. The clerk used the formula, developed the medicinal drink as created by the doctor and started selling it. He sold it in America, slowly in all of America, then other countries, then all over the place. I drink it. You might be drinking it right now. The clerk simply added one ingredient to this formula. That one ingredient is Imagination. The drink is called Coke. 

Formula inspired an insight that inspired a thought that inspired a vision....

Leadership cannot be developed. The clerk was a clerk for a long time. But Leadership can emerge suddenly through an insight. Therefore, What can be done is people can be made more and more self-aware. Self awareness will and almost always does lead to insights. How passionately committed you can be to your learning in life or your insights will define your ability to see and state a possibility. Your belief and boldness to live that possibility will define how others may get inspired. Your plan to achieve that possibility will infect others with your belief. The first plan (not getting into explanations in this letter but for the time being treat it as thumb rule for any new initiative) will always fail so your determination, persistence, relentlessness and will to create another one and inspire people to keep marching on will define your charisma. Your charisma will get more people attached to your vision and your insight. Your ability then to transfer your learning and insights to these people will make them more self aware and create and discover their own insights. Which then will lead you to develop more leaders? 

And all this needs to happen without you trying to do it. Through a compelling vision for the future... Gosh! Leadership!

The organization context, very much, remains the same. This isn't some idealistic theory. Have the guts to give people insights. Don't give them designations. Insight can be given in many ways - Give youngsters, for example a P&L responsibility, they will surely learn some hard truths from it. Get your salespeople, each one of them, to write a weekly column for their clients, without fail every week. They won't be able to do it initially and their credibility and reputation will suffer and there in lies an insight for communication. Get your HR team to be accountable for business results directly - If 'all' others don't meet targets, they don't get a raise at all - there in lies an insight for what practices, systems, policies and training is needed for results! Get your aspiring CEO to address a press conference on the future of your company 10 years hence. There is a reality check.  

Have the guts to take the risk of unsettling people because once they have the insight and only when they do  - YOU have your leader - he or she is the one who is stating a possibility post their experience. Your managers will be busy managing the mess all this created. They will be busy negotiating a reversal with you.

It's endless what you can do - it's limited only by your imagination. The question is - Do you yourself have an insight to do so? 

Whether you do or you don't - the very least all of us can do is not jargonize leadership into skills and constructed definitions. It starts with an insight, a vision. You either have one or you don't. Everything else follows.

yours 

Chetan Walia