Are you a leader?

It was a Friday evening and I was trying to complete all my tasks for the day before 6.00 pm and wanted rush to the pick-up spot by 6.15 pm.  It was not just me but most of the employees in the office. 

Are you wondering that what could be special about Friday evenings?

Friday evenings were kind of fun time. This was in one of the manufacturing industries that I worked with wherein we used to have a Company Bus picking us up from our factory to the nearby town for shopping.  More than shopping, the fun was travelling together with the colleagues and friends. It used to be mixed group consisting of trainees to sr. managers.  It used to be like a college picnic and going back to the college days. Obviously, I used to look forward to those Friday evenings.  

It used to be a 45 minutes Bus ride and that particular day everything seemed to be fine until the Bus came to a screeching halt in one particular junction. The Bus driver and the helper got down from the Bus and there were engaging in a heated argument with the auto driver. 

When I got down from the Bus, I understood that our company bus slightly hit the auto and there was no big damage except for couple of scratches. Since it was a one way wherein the auto was not supposed to come, the Bus driver was not in a mood to listen.  He thought he was technically not at fault.  The auto driver was a guy with local support and he was not ready to give in. The argument was not subsiding.  

Some of the colleagues travelling in the bus also came down.  We spoke to them and at last we pacified both the parties and we moved from that place. 

Points to ponder

# When I went back to the Bus, I could make an interesting observation.  Not all the managers travelled did really bother to get down.  Most of them stuck to their seats and continued with their conversations as if nothing has happened. Those who got down from the bus to try to resolve the issue were not necessarily mangers. Many were ordinary staff, but, in the common interest, they bothered to take the risk of talking to the agitated auto driver and his group and tried to pacify them.  It was actually not their job. They just volunteered and there would have been questioned if they had not done it.  Still they chose to take the risk and do it. 

# To be a leader, you don’t necessarily need a title. I’ve had an hands-on experience on this.  Those who got the titles are not necessarily leaders.

# Leader is the one who raises up to the occasion and in the common interest. Not all Managers are leaders and the real way of checking one’s leadership quality or any quality for that matter is to see how he carries himself in real-time situations at workplace. This is called as critical instances.

BTW, Critical instances are real-time instances at workplace with which you can make more realistic assessment than any other assessment. They are authentic. To give an example, if a Manager is fudging his bills for reimbursement, you don’t need any other assessment to check his values. If a Manager is repeatedly shouting at his team members in front other others, he is not good in people skills. There can be lot more examples.

So have you come across any such interesting experiences? Do share your experience. 

diD yOU enJOY ReADinG ThIS ArTIcLE? 

                                  If yES, 

yOU maY sHAre it wiTH Your FriENds tOO