Earning the Right to Lead

In my 19 and half years of career so far, I started training 18 years ago.

As I look back at all those years, I happened to remember one of the most profound incidents today.

It happened exactly 4 years ago to this date on a Friday on 12^th December 2014.

I had been invited by the CMD of a company to develop the leadership abilities of 17 division heads and senior managers in his organisation.

For me, leadership at its core is all about taking initiative, ownership and responsibility at one level and then having a positive influence on a group of people which inspires them to move in a purposive and possessed manner to make a positive difference in this world.

I for one have always believed that there already exist enough and more traits and leadership abilities within people and that at best, my job is to chip away at the rocks and wipe clean the mould that has taken over the limiting beliefs of the person concerned to then let their natural and unique leadership abilities shine – a la Michael Angelo’s philosophy around his sculpting. He always believed that the big monolith of a stone already contained a beautiful sculpture. His job was to merely chip away the unnecessary rocks around it.

Having said that I believe that the right to lead has to be earned and sustained.

So when the CMD of that company invited me 4 years ago, I took to that organisation as if it was my only client and went about building rapport and trust with a single-minded focus with each of those 17 people even as I was busy in the backend putting together the roadmap and design for the journey. For their own internal reasons, they took me on board as an employee whereas I continued looking at them as my sole client in focus to the exclusion of all other.

The first half of the orientation session was launched 5 weeks after I joined, on 10^th December and the second half on 12^th December 2014.

Having seen how the event went on the 10^th, I was keen to raise the bar even further on the 12^th and was looking for a way forward.

And that’s when I went to the CMD’s office on 12^th morning immediately after mailing my resignation and asked him if he had checked his email that morning.

Not yet, he replied.

I then asked him how much he trusted me.

“100%”, was his spontaneous reply.

“Then be open to the possibility that there will be a few upheavals today.”

Even as I said that, his phone rang. It was his son.

“The first blast has already happened. My son just called to ask why you have resigned.” he said as he cut the call after telling him that he will call back in a moment.

“Well, you will have the answer by afternoon today.”

And with that I went back to my room to put the final touches to the session that day having already mailed my resignation to the CMD with copies to his son, head of business development and the 17 leaders I was responsible for.

As we launched day 2 of the orientation, everyone had the same question for me: “Why have your resigned today?”

In my own dramatic, curt and authoritative manner I said that we will not discuss my resignation. The matter is not me but them and I would like to keep the focus as such, I told them.

And with that I took command of the session and we kept building further and further from where we had left on 10^th December.

We kept going from peak to peak when I suddenly shared that while I felt privileged to have known the amazingly inspiring and humbling life-shaping stories and experiences of the people in the room and was touched to be trusted over the last few days with the sessions, I still didn’t want to take them for granted and wanted to earn my right to be their facilitator and coach in the journey ahead.

And hence I had resigned that morning only to be re-interviewed by all them.

I told them that while the CMD had brought me over to the organisation in all his good intent and faith, I would rather have the deep trust and bonding with the team before I profess.

I would join once again only if I cleared their interview and hoped to keep clearing it every six months.

I wanted them to feel free in asking me any question they deemed fit while interviewing me.

I wanted my team to do my 360 degree performance appraisal to let me know if they thought I had been good enough to continue to be their trustee.

The moment I finished, they all spontaneously trooped out of the room in unison to the CMD’s office and tendered their verbal resignation.

The CMD’s reaction or say the lack of it indicated that by then he had prepared himself for any such bombshell.

Calmly he asked for the reason and what they said indicated that I stood vindicated in my objective.

They said: We have realized that it is important to earn the right to lead and not take it as an entitlement. We don’t want to take our team or the organisation for granted and would want to continue here only if we are going to add value. And we want our team to be the judge of it. We want them to interview us and decide.

Things began changing dramatically within the organisation after that day and peaked within two weeks from that day.

More on that some other time but for me there has been no looking back since I first read John Maxwell’s book where he rightly said that leaders have to earn the right to lead.

_/\_

Sohum

Post script:

Who are the leaders in your life who earned the right to lead you?

I would be keen to listen to your stories. Please do share.