Become the best leader by being funny and being humiliated

by Bhavin Gandhi

Over the years, I have learned a lot about leadership and management. And when I was analyzing my knowledge, I realized that there are only two very important characteristics of a good leader, which separates him/her from the crowd. In this blog, I will focus on these two characteristics, which can make you the best leader.

Be funny:
By being funny, I dont mean that you need to be a superstar at the break room discussions. What I mean is..you need to have a humorous side of you to laugh on your mistakes. One of the best leader in the world, who implemented this strategy was Mahatma Gandhi. It must have taken tremendous amount of courage for a person like him to confess that he messed up, but he confessed his mistakes on various occasions. He not only acknowledged his mistakes but admitted them publically. And this was one of his characteristics, which was admired by his peers. We are all humans, and we all make mistakes. But a true leader is the one, who not only admits his mistakes but learns from it. Take Johnson & Johnson for example. Their Tylenol incident is not a secret to anyone, but majority of people remember that incident by praising Johnson & Johnsons effort of recalling all of its medicine from the counter and apologizing publicly for this huge mistake. Thus, it is very critical for you as a leader to be able to laugh on your mistakes. Its not enough to just publicly admit your mistakes. Make sure to take some notes. In this way, you will be able to implement your learning from this incident to the future projects, and maybe, not repeat these mistakes again.

Author: Bhavin.Gandhi@live.com | Contact information: http://www.BhavinGandhi.com

Be humiliated:
If you want to become the best leader in the world, then you need to surround yourself with genius employees. Look at Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc. They have always surrounded themselves with cream employees. Lets say, you somehow get successful in attracting best-of-the-best employees in your team. Now, instead of learning from them and taking benefit of their knowledge, if you direct them specifically to do certain tasks then they are never going to add any value to your organization. Unfortunately, 40% of todays leaders would use tell-and-direct approach, since they fear of humiliation from their employees. While this approach might lead you to the desired results, you are suppressing ideas of improvements that your employees might have. Wasnt this the exact reason why you hired intelligent workforce? So, how come we are unable to use their talents? Answer is very simplemost of the leaders are afraid of being humiliated by their employees. Thus, to become the best leader, we should be open to new ideas of our employees, even if, that means we will look foolish in front of them when we ask questions. By developing this kind of an environment, you would be encouraging your employees to share knowledge freely, and hence, improving the overall health of your company. I hope these tips will help you to become the best leader in todays world. Do you have any other ideas through which a person can become the best leader? Thanks. Bhavin Gandhi.

Bhavin Gandhi | September 18, 2012 at 1:46 PM | Tags: 21st century, Being funny, Building Trust,Challenges, Communication, Humiliated, Humiliation, Laugh on your mistakes, Leaders of Tomorrow,Leadership, Leadership Failures, Management, Manager Training, The best leader, Work culture | Categories: 21st Century, Leadership, Management | URL: http://wp.me/p103Cm-8i

Author: Bhavin.Gandhi@live.com | Contact information: http://www.BhavinGandhi.com