5 Things to learn from the world’s top leaders

Recently, we witnessed one of the greatest events in our country; the landing of Chandrayaan 2 on the moon. I know it didn’t go as well as we all would have wished for, but the entire event was no less than a leadership training program for me!

It was a spectacular event. One of those rare occasions where the entire country was awake post mid night, cheering on for science and showing their support to their nation. We may not have been entirely successful that day, but there was definitely plenty to learn from. And a lot that we would love to reflect on in a leadership training program.

That night, we witnessed two great leaders – our Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi and the ISRO Chief Dr. K. Sivan.

It was amazing to see how the prime minister of the nation managed to be there for our team of scientists throughout the process, really not caring about what time it was! In fact, that particular night and the next day morning he attended multiple events and meetings back to back at different locations of the country. But he still made it a point to go back to ISRO to meet the scientists again in the morning. And the best part about it was that he did all of this travelling, contributing to each event and being there for his countrymen with the same enthusiasm.

There were three big things here that we can learn from a leader like him. One, be there for your team fully and look forward to their work and achievements. Two, support and motivate your team when they fail and show them the positive side of those failures. And three, be enthusiastic about each and every task that you do irrespective of its importance. And always remember, enthusiasm is infectious and can spread extremely fast!  And that I can vouch for when we conduct team building activities as a part of our leadership training workshop!

Coming to our second leader; Dr. K. Sivan. Two qualities that I absolutely admired about Dr. Sivan were his humbleness and ability to express his true emotions in front of the entire nation. Although Dr. Sivan was the leader of the nation’s space research organisation and was highly educated, he was so humble. And he was not afraid of showing his emotions when he broke down while talking to the Prime Minister. Now that, I would say that is true emotional intelligence, an important aspect of every leadership training skills!

It takes courage to do that. To cry when you fail especially when you are in a position like him. And that too with the whole world looking at you! He could have been afraid of being judged as weak and incompetent. But he didn’t let that stop him. Instead he did what felt right in that moment.

There is a common myth that a leader can never be weak. He can never show his vulnerable side to his people. But I think it’s quite the contrary. True strength comes from being who you truly are and not being afraid to show it to the world, even if they tag it as weakness! And that is what is truly inspirational in a leader, his human-ness.