Inspiration Corner
A collection of write-ups from experiences of life that inspire, empower, influence & trigger positive values, habits & mindsets.
Leadership Lies in the Extra
I know that there have been innumerable books, uncountable theories and numerous concepts on the topic of Leadership.
Perhaps I haven't gone through them completely but from my little experience of life I would like to share one of the concepts
of leadership that has always yielded the results. In fact from my study of some autobiographies and biographies of great leaders
of the world I have been able to ascertain that this little idea on leadership can give us all a very easy method to cultivate leadership
abilities in us in our daily life. If anyone has a misconception that leadership is not required in daily life and not for every common
man then it must be solved soon enough because there is no point in living a life as a slave of circumstances.
When we see the examples of famous leaders like Mahatma Gandhi ji, Abraham Lincoln, Helen Keller, Steve Jobs,
Arnold Schwarzenegger or any others we find that these people weren't satisfied with the way things were going in normal life.
They wanted something extra either for themselves or for someone else or for the society. No doubt that these people were
self-sufficient enough to earn their livelihood through the existing means of working but they did not live to just earn their livelihood.
All of these great men and women wanted something extra in life. Want or desire precedes every action of humans but the only condition is
that this want or desire has to be strong enough to drive an action which is quite different from the everyday regular routine of actions
that we perform. Some of the freedom fighters worked extra to fight for the freedom, some of the sportsmen worked extra to become the king
of their sports, some of the technocrats spent extra thinking time in designing something extra that didn't exist before, some of the
entertainment industry people developed new and extra mediums of entertainment. As a result the world has seen great leaders in all
possible fields. If none of these people had given an extra thought to pursue their extra actions the mankind would have still lived
in the Stone Age I feel. Just being famous alone doesn't distinguish leaders. Everyone has a leader in him/her but the only issue is
that many of us have to awaken the leader within.
While you're at home you can offer an extra hand to your mother to help her out in household activities, you can take an extra effort to make sure the teacher has all the accessories rightly arranged in the class, you can give an extra smile on the people's face just by wishing them with an extra wide smile, you can share the burden of the work from your colleague to help the team perform better in your office, and there can be zillion such extra tasks that you can perform without harming your regular routine. People who feel all these small extra things make no impact are always blemished under this notion and never take an extra step to work on anything and as a result they don't achieve anything extra than what they have done so far and blame it on fate. Just remember that none of the great leaders became great leaders all of a sudden. They continued their extra effort to walk an extra mile continuously for years to become what they became.
While you're at home you can offer an extra hand to your mother to help her out in household activities, you can take an extra effort to make sure the teacher has all the accessories rightly arranged in the class, you can give an extra smile on the people's face just by wishing them with an extra wide smile, you can share the burden of the work from your colleague to help the team perform better in your office, and there can be zillion such extra tasks that you can perform without harming your regular routine. People who feel all these small extra things make no impact are always blemished under this notion and never take an extra step to work on anything and as a result they don't achieve anything extra than what they have done so far and blame it on fate. Just remember that none of the great leaders became great leaders all of a sudden. They continued their extra effort to walk an extra mile continuously for years to become what they became.
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Any facts, figures or references stated here are made by the author & don't reflect the endorsement of iU at all times unless otherwise drafted by official staff at iU. This article was first published here on July 2012.