\u2015 A quote by Robin S. Sharma, from his book \u2018The Leader Who Had No Title\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other day, recently, I woke up to a bright sunny day and looked at the sky with few white clouds, a rarity in Mumbai during the monsoon season. The nice weather prompted me to go for my morning walk and enjoy the fresh airy weather. As I walk through this lively park in my gated community home while admiring the greenery, I noticed this young boy sitting beside his grandmother and meticulously drawing something in his book, with what seemed like a hand-crafted pencil. As I watched the boy, I noticed that every time he completed a perfect stroke with the pencil, he gazed at the pencil with such satisfaction, as if he were thanking it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I felt so intrigued by observing the way he valued the pencil. This reminded me of a simple yet thought-provoking parable by acclaimed novelist Paulo Coelho- \u201cThe Pencil\u201d. I\u2019ve given it a swirl of my own interpretation to tie it down to how leadership qualities can sprout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.kapilchhabra.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/pencil-37254_1280-243x300.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe parable goes like this. Long ago, there lived a pencil maker who admired each and every pencil he carved out. One day, master pencil maker was preparing to put a well-crafted pencil into a beautifully decorated box; but before doing so, he took the pencil aside to give it some words of wisdom. This is what he told the pencil: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear Pencil, there are five things I wish to share with you before you go out into the world. Always keep them in mind, to become the best version of a pencil you can be. This will enable you to make a positive difference in the world and be at peace inside and outside:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The pencil understood and promised to remember\nthese words of wisdom, and went into the box with an understanding of purpose\nin its heart. This made me ponder over how something as simple as a pencil has\nso many leadership lessons to dwell upon. It made me realize how relevant this\nunderstanding is for leadership aspects too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many personal development professionals are of the\nopinion that leaders are born and thus everyone cannot be a leader. Well, in\ntheir defence, they probably haven\u2019t looked at the entire realm of reality. And\nmost people too think that they can-not become a leader. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I believe that leadership is something that begins\nin your mind and then transcends into your behaviours and actions. For me,\ntoday is all about self-empowerment with potential to make everyone a\nself-leader. Everyone is a leader or say a Chief-Executive-Officer to at the least\none person, i.e. they themselves. Self-leadership is about knowing who you\nreally are, what you can do, and where you want to go, by steering your\nthoughts and behaviour to get there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So the learnings from the pencils journey can\nprovide us insights as how each of us has the potential and necessity to be\nleader. Elucidated below are the \u201cfive\npowerful factors that empower you to be a leader\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we write with a\npencil, we guide the pencil to what we want to write. Similarly, we need to be amenable, like a pencil, and\nchoose to be guided by people who are more experienced and\/or or have\nspecialized expertise. This is why we have mentors and expert boards. Being open to feedback in\na positive way, having the capacity to respond and not react differing opinions,\nand being humble in accepting help, guidance, expertise when required, makes us\nmore effective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Preparedness is another\nname for potential, preparedness to rise to an occasion is all about being\ncompetent to avail an opportunity, when it appears. Just like the pencil, we\nneed to go under the blade remain sharp i.e. be a continuous learner and keep\nenhancing our skills. Again welcome feedback as an input to get ahead of our\ndeficiencies. Like a pencil when the pointed edge breaks be prepared to\nre-sharpen yourself. Tough challenges in life hone us to become a better person.\nMost people don\u2019t even feel like leaders\u2014until they come across a situation\nthat either tests their limits or brings out their strengths. To sharpen our\ncapabilities, we need to put in hard work and stretch ourselves when required. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \n \n \n In this journey of existence it\nimportant for us to be self-confident and having awareness of the present\nmoment and mindful that mistakes are an integral part of actions. It\u2019s when we embrace these mistakes\nand learn from them and enhance then make changes, we are able to shine through\nour contributions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of us learn, erase and\nbecome better, just like the third point for the pencil. Doers take time in\ndeveloping themselves, they constantly asses themselves in terms of their\nknowledge, skills, talents, weaknesses, etc; and they work to correct and enhance\nthemselves. This is self-leadership and it\u2019s a never-ending self-development\nactivity. If you have to lead others, you have to constantly better yourself\nand then encourage others to do the same. If you commit to learning\ncontinually, you will have better leadership skills with each passing day. Being a leader has never really been about title,\nrole, age or culture. These factors may influence the style of a leader but are\ndefinitely not deciding factors. We can impact the world positively, if we are driven\nby our purpose and passion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As a leader, it is important to know yourself. We\nusually invest a lot of time to manage our external appearance; we can apply\nthe same concepts to manage ourselves internally. Do you know yourself? Do you\nknow what drives you? How do you fuel your passion? Just like the pencil, we all\nare crafted differently; it\u2019s what\u2019s on the inside that\u2019s really the most\nimportant and we need to discover that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Aspiration with the 3Ps of\nPassion, Perseverance, and Plasticity, makes a big difference to what we\ncontribute which in turn determines the level of our success. There are times\nwhen we wonder whether all this effort, struggle and hardship is all worth it,\nbut there may be people depending on us and we need to pull through. Leadership is about\nholding onto your vision and values even despite of obstacles that may come on\nthe way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is said that everything\nyou do has some effect, some impact. So what are you doing to make a positive\nimpact? Think about how you can leverage your passions and talents to create a\npositive impact in the world around you. For example, I believe that I have\ngained a good deal of knowledge over the years and I strive every single day to\nmake sure that expertise and knowledge reaches others in way that can help them\nin be more fulfilled and successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sociologists have often suggested that the most people will influence 10,000 others in an average lifetime. In other words, every one of us, even the shy ones, are influencing others. It simply means each of us is expected to be leader in our own way to lead ourselves and to influence other on the right path. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Welcome to the world where everyone is a leader. & we should take massive actions daily to reach the pinnacle of our dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe all need to lead where we are planted and shine where we now find ourselves.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2015 A quote by Robin S. Sharma, from his book \u2018The Leader Who Had No Title\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" FIVE POWERFUL FACTORS THAT EMPOWER YOU TO BE A LEADER – By Kapil Chhabra \u201cLeadership\u2019s a lot more about how brilliantly you work and how masterfully you behave.\u201d \u2015 A quote by Robin S. Sharma, from his book \u2018The Leader Who Had No Title\u2019 The other day, recently, I woke up to a bright sunny day and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[64,5,3,4],"tags":[55,62,65,56],"class_list":["post-35580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-human-development","category-leadership","category-management","tag-business-excellence","tag-leadership-development","tag-management","tag-operational-excellence","category-64","category-5","category-3","category-4","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kapilchhabra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kapilchhabra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kapilchhabra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kapilchhabra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kapilchhabra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35580"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.kapilchhabra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35609,"href":"https:\/\/www.kapilchhabra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35580\/revisions\/35609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kapilchhabra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kapilchhabra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kapilchhabra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kapilchhabra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMost\nof the successful leaders today were leading an average life until they came\nacross a challenging situation to rise above and\/or got an insight that ignited\na fire in their belly that awakened them to make a difference; they come out of\nthe situation much more successful or stronger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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