The essence of effective leadership

An effective and sensible leader, in whatever capacity, stands out. A “leader” means life offers you a higher perch than other people have. If you sit on a higher perch and you do not see any better than others, you will become an object of ridicule. Only if you are able to see something that nobody else can see, people will all look up to you. So a leader has to have an insight into the situations in which we exist, an insight into the problems that may exist, an insight into a possible solution.

You are not a superman, but people expect you to be one. So if you do not have a better insight than the people who are looking up to you, you will become a ridiculous fool rather than being a celebrated leader. A leader is someone who wants to juggle more balls than others or wants to grapple with something larger than what anybody else is willing to grapple with. That’s what makes you a leader.

So, you need a constant sense of inspiration. Otherwise, when you try to handle situations which are larger than you – if you are the kind who is going to get depressed or frustrated about something – you will die from that. Because when you take on situations bigger than yourself, every moment so many things do not happen the way you want. The larger the situation, the more things do not happen the way you want them to.

If you are made in such a way that you are going to become depressed or broken if something does not happen the way you think it should, then you will break into pieces in no time. You have to have the necessary inspiration; whether something is going your way or not, you are inspired enough to pursue the cause that you are working for with a relentless commitment.

Integrity is a key element in building trust. Without building trust, you are never ever going to be a leader. Most people do not understand what is integrity. People think, “If I don’t rob someone, I have integrity.” No. Integrity is a coherence between what you say and what you do, and what you think and how you feel about life around you.

It is not just in your actions. Integrity is in the way you are and the way you carry yourself. If you do not bring it there, integrity will be a burdensome exercise where you have to somehow hold it. You do it only when others are watching you.

Integrity has to be built into people right from their childhood. It’s not something that somebody picks up just like that. It’s something that becomes a part of your life. It needs to be inculcated in families, in schools, everywhere. I think this integrity is missing on a very fundamental level.