Growth through Leadership Development

Sita-pati das: This article is by Tri Yuga das, a disciple of His Holiness Devamrita Swami, who currently resides in the ISKCON temple in Melbourne Australia runs the Urban Yoga center in Melbourne, Australia.

Growth through Leadership Development

I am firmly convinced that the most effective way to grow an organization is to develop leaders. Leaders are able to take responsibility for existing departments, pioneer new ground, attract quality people to the cause, and ultimately reproduce themselves.

Managing people and systems may be good for maintaining things, but it is unrealistic for managers to expect their people to be especially fired up about ‘being managed’ and maintaining an institution that is not growing.

On the other hand, when people are inspired by a compelling vision and are being developed and challenged to take responsibility for some aspect of the vision, their own enthusiasm and potential is awakened and they will happily take up their load without needing to be motivated or threatened. Let’s take a look a the type of person that we could define as a ‘leader’:

Qualities of a Leader

• Driven by conviction in the cause
• Creative intelligence
• Strategists
• Doers / Activists
• Problem solvers
• Influential (inspires and directs followers)
• Visionary
• Relationally strong – a caring Shepard
• Team player

Driven by conviction in the cause

A leader is someone who is going somewhere and taken others with them. Leaders are driven by a sense of purpose. When creating a leadership team it is important that each member of the team holds allegiance to the same ultimate purpose. In the case of our mission I would suggest that it is to:

• Attract people to Krishna Consciousness.
• Educate and inspire people in Krishna Consciousness growth.
• To foster loving community that inspires and supports people in Krishna Consciousness.
• To facilitate people’s desire to contributing to the Krishna Conscious mission.

Summarized as ‘Attract, develop, facilitate, community’

Creative intelligence

Leaders think outside the square. They bring their experience, inspiration, and intelligence to bear on the cause, and if they find themselves deficient in some area they are able to seek out the input they need to complete their thinking. Learn to draw upon the thinking of your leaders and you have tapped into a powerful creative resource.

Strategists

Leaders know how to organize their time, set goals, and manage priorities. They can plan a project, build a team, gather resources, organize and execute.

Doers / Activists

Leaders are not simply theoretical people. They make things happen. Too much planning and strategic waffle without action gets on their nerves. They value their time and want to see good ideas come to life in action.

Problem solvers

Give a problem or project to a leader and they will return with the solution. “Mission accomplished!”

Influential (inspires and directs followers)

Leaders influence those around them and are able to mobilize people around a cause. Add a leader to your team and you have added all those they influence to your ranks as well!

Visionary

Leaders have a vision of a better future, and it fuels them with energy and drive. When they effectively communicate that vision, those around them become infected with the same enthusiasm and drive to bring that vision to fruition.

Relationally strong – a caring Shepard

A leader has influence with people because he/she builds good relationships with them. They feel his/her care and interest in them, and feel uplifted by that relationship. Mutual affection and loyalty is developed. This strong sense of community that builds around a caring leader is very fulfilling and motivating.

Team player

A leader knows the value of working with others in a team spirit. They foster such camaraderie in the teams they lead and influence and they also have a strong desire to ally and cooperate with other strong leaders who share enthusiasm for the higher cause that drives them.

Leaders vs. Systems

While implementing management systems is definitely a necessary aspect of maintaining an organization, a focus on leadership development can take things to a whole new level. Here are a bunch of reasons why a focus on leadership development fulfills the purposes of management systems in a highly effective way, while opening the door to explosive organizational growth.

Dynamic problem solving

A system is a procedure implemented to solve a defined problem within controlled parameters. When the problem transforms, the system often becomes ineffective. On the other hand, if a problem area is given into the care of a leader who feels ownership and responsibility for it, the leader will figure out how to solve the problem and monitor it, adjusting the solution to remain effective over time.

Systems are born out of thoughtful leaders. Leaders create systems that solve problems. Therefore, why not create leaders and let them solve the problems?

Creative Intelligence

A system cannot think, leaders can.

Ownership

When a leader feels responsible for a group, department or project, he/she will do everything in his/her power to guild it to success. On the other hand, a system without a person who feels ownership for maintaining it quickly falls into disuse.

Inspiration

People tire of being subject to institutional systems ‘coming down from above’. On the other hand, people love to feel inspired by a caring, enthusiastic leader who overflows with the vision and leads them in their charge for the cause.

Followers

Leaders, by definition, are able to rally people to their cause. Get a leader on board your team and you get their followers as well.

Summary

The more capable leaders that an organization has at its disposal, the greater things it can achieve. I believe that any organization that has as one of its core objectives to attract, identify, develop and engage people with leadership potential is assured of explosive growth. This is because leaders feel ownership for the mission, attract followers, get things done and ultimately, develop more leaders.

Dear ISKCON leader,

You are undoubtedly a leader. You are a great contributor, and your impact on the health, stability, and growth of this community is highly commendable. And your influence is significant.

My appeal to you is that you consider the magnitude of potential present within this idea of leadership development. I request that you don’t simply add leadership development to the end of the list of things you do, but rather, make it a major priority. Consider this motto developed by Sita-pati, which I have adopted as my own:

“We don’t do things, we develop people… … things get done along the way”

And let us always remember the Law of Reproduction:

“It takes a leader to raise up a leader”

I would love to discuss this with you further and take steps to develop a strategy for implementing leadership development as a major part of what we do.