What are the
qualities of a leader?
A common question
asked in interviews. Here are some ideas.
All the soldiers were very busy moving the logs from one
place to another. There were no bulldozers or modern equipments because this
happened more than 200 hundred years ago. The men were struggling to lift and
move those big pieces of log. The corporal who was looking after the task angrily
shouted at them “I will give you only five minutes. Otherwise you will be put
in night patrol and forget your sleep.” What all the men needed was just one
set of additional hands to help them. Just one set! The corporal was not at all ready because he thought that he was
their supervisor. He believed that his
duty was to give orders and not supporting his men.
Suddenly a man came there and lent a hand to the tired and
sweating men to lift the large timber. With his assistance they successfully
moved the wooden piece. The corporal who was their immediate over seer smiled haughtily
and ordered the group to move to the next assignment.
Before getting on his horse, the new comer asked the
corporal “Whenever you need any help, you can call me.”
“Who are you?” was the corporal’s arrogant question.
The man simply replied “I
AM GEORGE WASHINGTON, the chief of army.” And he went away on his horse.
The corporal found himself bowled over! All the soldiers
stood astonished with a new respect on their
Chief of Army.
########################################################
It was a hot January. In the southern districts of India there
were only three seasons. That is what my professor used to tell us “We have
hot, hotter and hottest seasons. That is all for the whole year.”
The village children were playing together on the road. A
car crossed them fast but within minutes it screeched to halt. An old man came
out.
He enquired “Children, why didn’t you go to school? Is it a
holiday?”
“No, sir. If we go to school, who is there to feed us? There
is no food in our house. We are shepherds. Our boss gives food and a small
salary every month.”
The old man was thoughtful for a moment and asked with a
sudden spark in the eyes “If food is there in your school, will you go to
school?”
“We have to inform our parents.”
“I’ll take care of it, my children. You go to school. Study
and find a job... You are the future of this country. Education is our strength”
Again the car started. The sudden spark in the eyes of the
old man was the result of his creativeness
that had come in his mind. It was the famous noon-meal scheme. It dramatically changed the school strength in
this part of India
from roughly 200, 000 to more than1000, 000.Then this scheme was followed
worldwide in developing countries applauded by the UN.
The scheme was called mid-day meal scheme. The leader was Kamaraj.
This happened in 1960s.
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Leadership qualities:
Help your team when they
are in distress like George Washington.
Creativity: Move
with all simplicity and interact
with people to have practical knowledge and to find solutions with creativity like Kamaraj (who had never gone
to any school for formal education!)
___________________________________________________________
Noon-meal:
It is simply lunch in Indian context.
But you can use the word ‘dinner’ for lunch or even for evening/night food. When it is the main meal of the day, you
can freely apply the word ‘dinner’. There is no need to restrict it to night or
mid-day.
In U.S, people
generally call midday-meal as ‘lunch’.
Evening meal is ‘supper/dinner’.
TEA: Tea time is
tea plus cookies/cakes etc.
High Tea: High tea is
evening around 6’o clock with cooked food.
Supper: Night food.
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