The Hindu Business Line : Leader Speak

Leadership is apparently a relatively easy attribute to recognise, but how do we go about defining it? Today, an acceptable definition of corporate leaders is "people who leave their footprints in their areas of passion."

I believe the fundamental difference between a good manager and a great manager is that the latter is passionate about improving the current paradigm of his company. He also discovers methods to manage the "change" to a fruitful and beneficial conclusion. Interestingly, a great manager is also an embedded leader armed with the commitment of taking his organisation to new heights through sheer grit and effort. A great manager, I understand, is an individual who manages stability, pushes the boundaries of excellence, but simultaneously is realistic enough to ensure the "organisation does not blow up."

Furthermore, managing and steering daily chores is no mean task. It requires a manager to consistently maintain positive results, meet aims and targets and constantly `tune up' business processes. And, managerial success to my mind involves competence, ability, and teamwork.

With the phenomenal changes in the corporate world, a great manager cannot excel without passion and perspective — where he has the burning urge to make things better and brighter.

Of course, organisational skills require creativity and routine practicality. In other words, a great manager needs to translate his company's vision into a methodical and practical step-by-step programme.

Meanwhile, at all levels, today, teamwork is a mantra being universally followed. And all major changes means engaging, convincing and collaborating with other people. Thus, a great manager has to be a team person who manages, leads, coordinates and functions along with a team. Hence he has to be persistent, open-minded, tolerant of ambiguity and have the confidence to sail on uncharted waters.

To sum up, a great manager simply doesn't execute and manage multifarious tasks. He is a trustworthy asset of any company, bridging the gap between the trademark and the `trustmark'.