Are you a Leader ?

I believe, it is apt to start with the following quote, which in my opinion captures the essence of leadership beautifully.  Let me quote Dee Hock, founder of Visa “Here is the very heart and soul of the matter. If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself -- your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you, and 15% managing your peers. Use the remainder to induce those you "work for" to understand and practice the theory. I use the terms "work for" advisedly, for if you don't understand that you should be working for your mislabeled "subordinates," you haven't understood anything. Lead yourself, lead your superiors, lead your peers, and free your people to do the same. All else is trivia. 

My own experience suggests that we need to invest that more than 90 % of our resources (time and energy) in leading ourselves. If we do that part (leading ourselves) with integrity, then everything else falls in place.

 To answer to the question,” Am I a leader?”,   I would like to state  every human being has the potential to be a Leader and no one can  label  himself /herself   as a   Leader  all the time. Leadership is nothing but a state of mind.  When Life offers us tough questions, if we are in the “Leadership state of mind”, it enables us to answer the question fairly and justly.  When we fail to do that, then we cease to be a leader for that moment. In another words, every human being in this world has the potential to be a leader and Leadership is nothing but the “Momentary responses” we offer to the challenges and opportunities life offers us. 

The anonymous person who faced Chinese tanks in Tiananmen Square was a great leader at that point of time. At the same time the so called “Leaders” of our time cease to be a Leader many a times. 

 My own ideas of Leadership (Leadership is a state of mind, everybody has the potential to be a leader and momentary leadership) have evolved from my own experiments with Truth . 

So I would like to redefine the question “Are you a leader at this moment?” 

I truly believe “You Are , at this moment of time”.