Availability Makes a Good Manager, a Great Leader

A famous Quote says “A Leader is someone who inspires others to follow”. So in my opinion Leadership is not about getting things done, it is about your actions that make others to inspire and follow.

Let me come to the topic why I mentioned Leader under the topic Manager. Dad is my first leader I saw at home, a good teacher is the second leader I saw at school, a good professor is the third leader I saw during my college and after my college; a good manager is the only leader I spend most time with. After your college, the only person who educates us is our Manager. Knowingly or unknowingly the managers become the turning pages for most books. They become the reason for success and failures of many.

I see most successful students always name their teacher for the success; it is so real in corporate world also. In simple words, Managers are like aroma that comes out of the perfume, they cannot be measured by the quantity and the color. It is always the quality that matters

If I think of myself as a person and I can easily observe my character and behavior went through lot of changes and today I can proudly say, my leaders are responsible for all my good and I blame myself for all my bad.

In my opinion, the first and foremost important characteristic for any leader is “Availability”. A manager need not be smart, a manager need not be a solution for all problems, or a manager need not be successful but needs to be available. Availability solves most problems.

Availability gives the team a sense of ownership; the moment the availability is sensed, the manager is seen as a medicine. Medicine is always the sign of Trust and confidence than cure. Success goes with the medicine and failures go with the severity of the disease.

Once the availability is felt, each and every member of the team will start to own the manager as a possession. This possession creates an unshakable respect for the manager. The respect changes the word manager to “MY Manager”. The word “My Manager” creates a sentiment, feeling and more than life time achievement for any manager and he becomes possessive and very protective towards the team and the team becomes “My Team”.  Such chemistry is often seen only in Families, where Dad is the leader who takes care of his kids and his entire family and that is why most teams in corporate add family to their team name . Team - My Team, Manager - My Manager may sound simple but they are more sensible chemistry that succeeded many things including Freedom. I can assuredly say all the world’s greatest innovation, invention and success are born only from such “MY Team’s and My Managers”

Such a great manager is always a true inspiration and such an inspiration will always be considered as a Great Leader

This is my observation from a living example. I am proud that I worked under such a great leader and I will definitely cultivate this as my character.

Courage is what will cost to say “NO”

This article is not about saying NO but an art everyone need to build for oneself

Let us not misunderstand, I am writing in favor of people who show attitude. May be it sounds like an Attitude issue but when you deeply think Saying NO is a reflection of courage and the confidence that one built for oneself.

The most successful person of the decade Infosys Narayan Moorthy says he is so successful only because he said NO for GE project. I very well know this is not so easy in the corporate world where your growth is defined in such a way that you have to accept new things to grow.

The below are the three characteristics that is very important to say NO

Self-Positioning: The most important thing in anybody’s life is ambition (or) what you want to become? If you are really clear with your ambition, then it is about learning and adapting to new environment as you climb the ladder.

Self-Evaluation: Whenever you grow, you need to make sure you do justice to your growth. So self-evaluation is like a pit stop, one must stop to evaluate how much one has learnt. This will help you in positioning yourself.

Self-Rating: This particular exercise builds a tremendous courage and confidence in you. Most philosophies say the best person to judge you is yourself. This rating exercise will help you in evaluation and positioning

The above three clearly show who you are to yourself, if you fail, you always tend to accept things and become comfortable with what you get but if you pass, this character becomes a charisma in you. I was surprised to see people accepting this and appreciating them for being bold and confident.