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Leaders develop
a bad habit of becoming a model. They start believing and practicing ‘leading by
example’. However there is a flip side of leading by example, which means making
people dependent on your examples and hence rendering them ineffective. They
start idealizing the leaders and losing self-confidence. They become creatures
of communication: whatever the leader says is right and a must. I propose,
therefore, leading by doing mistakes, instead of leading by examples. Leadership
by examples has many problems. It is individualized and hence non-systematic. It
creates jealousies and hence lack of co-operation. On the top, it is tiring. On
the other hand, leadership by mistakes, and I mean deliberate mistakes of
course, is humane. It makes your team members realize that you are a normal
person, and hence can be at fault. It generates a confidence in your team, which
then shows eagerness to help you in coming out of crisis.
Leadership by mistakes is in fact a key to
institutionalization. Institutions are built by people, and examples are just a
sign-post. If you emphasize too much on charisma, models and ideals, you will
soon become exhausted and labelled either as a saint or a cynic. Both these
images are not helpful in dealing with humans. Therefore, if you still like the
word ‘example’, try introducing your mistake as an example. However, these
mistakes should not become a regular practice, otherwise there is a high
probability of being charge-sheeted!
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