How leaders emerge

Most of us apply our leadership skills on a day-to-day basis. We lead our families, our children, our spouse and our siblings. At work we might lead teams that span multiple countries or just a few college interns. An important attribute of leadership is responsibility; not just owning responsibility of your actions; but owning responsibility of your surroundings. For certain roles, leadership is a primary need and it remains subtle. Policemen, emergency medical responders, surgeons etc. belong to this category. In an operating room, the surgeon is the leader. When there is unrest or emergency, people follow the emergency responders. If something goes wrong during the surgery, the doctor is held responsible. Even if something terrible happens because of a nurse's negligence in the operating room, the doctor is the one that will get sued; not the nurse. True leaders are risk takers. They don't shy away from tasks because of the risks involved. We overlook the importance of leadership in these roles as it is not very obvious. For example school bus drivers are not really seen as leaders even though they are responsible for the safety of the children travelling in the bus. It is the driver's responsibility to lead the children out of danger when there is an unforeseen incident.

It is also equally true that there are several roles that do not need any leadership skills. Individuals in these roles can contribute a lot and benefit an organization tremendously without really exhibiting any leadership skills. These roles belong to individual contributor category. Performance of an individual contributor is measured solely by the individual's contribution. In many fields, one could stay an individual contributor throughout the career. For example, one could join a company as a computer programmer and retire as one if he or she decides to do so. Even if the person lacks people and other social skills, it is not considered a shortcoming as these skills are not essential for fulfilling the role. From a company's perspective, all that counts is the individual's ability to contribute to the company's success by creating high quality software.

On the other hand, the success of many roles depends on the collective contribution from others that help achieve a goal. For example, the true measure of a teacher's accomplishment is the performance of the class. An executive manager's success is measured by the success of the region he or she heads. Let us take the case of the software programmer. Every programmer fulfilling their roles to the fullest extent does not by itself guarantee a successful project. When individual contributors encounter obstacles, they look toward someone to clear the obstacle. This could be help in the form of technical advice when a programmer gets stuck or providing the infrastructure for the smooth functioning of the team. This is where leadership roles come into play.

Conflict resolution is an important aspect of leadership in any walk of life. When there are conflicts in our life, we look toward someone for resolution. In general, leadership is a byproduct of authority or expertise. Inside a surgery room, the doctor is the leader because of his authority. A judge is the leader in a courtroom. However authoritarian leadership does not work in all the situations. A judge or a surgeon may not succeed in leading their family with the same leadership style and skills they lead a hearing or a surgery. Individuals do not remain leaders in all situations. An executive may fail at leading the local soccer team. Similarly, a Samaritan, father of four, softball coach need not necessarily be a great leader at work place. Compassion is the primary driver behind leadership. You show your leadership skills when you are passionate about what you are doing. When you sincerely believe in the cause, you go above and beyond being an individual contributor and work toward the success of the team. If you see things that could affect the team's performance or hinder the success of the project, you voice your concern to the senior management and fight to remove the impediment.

While doctors, teachers and policemen are trained to be leaders, mechanics, engineers and scientists are not. They tend to work in isolation, deep diving into their own problem space. They are generally not interested in what is happening around them. They tend to depend on external entities when there are non-technical issues beyond their domain of expertise. When a group of such people work in a project, when there is no appointed leader, sometimes, one or more leaders emerge. Someone will help the team find answers for technical issues and communicate them effectively to the team - the technical leaders. Another team member will volunteer his time to create a project plan, create a timeline and makes sure the project is on track. These people do not just sit and complain; they put things into action even if it is not their responsibility. For example, if the team feels the need for bigger white boards to collaborate their ideas, conference rooms for regular meetings etc., these leaders use their charm to make them happen for the team. When a team member decides to quit, they make sure there is a backup so that the project runs smoothly. They have a flair for listening to people's problems. When members are not putting the same level of effort, they strive to keep the morale of the team high. They make sure that the team members are not working in isolation, but they all understand the priorities and working toward the same goal. Like parents solving conflicts within the siblings in an amicable way after listening to all the views, these people interfere and bring conflicts to resolution. Without this interference, the conflicts could go on forever, adversely affecting the project. These are the true leaders; they do not need a formal title to apply their leadership skills.

When companies look for managers and other leadership roles, these are the kind of people they look for. Great leaders don't reach the height of success without facing their share of minor challenges and major crises. In fact, most outstanding leaders would say that working through difficulties made them even better. A truly great leader will rise to the top in troubling times, when difficult decisions are made and decisive action must be taken. It takes someone with a clear vision and unstoppable fortitude to lead an organization through its worst times, whether they involve economic troubles, public relations nightmares or product failures. Outstanding leaders can take a potentially disastrous situation and not only prevent it from becoming worse, but turn it into a positive outcome for the team and the company.