A vision for the future

 Hello friends,

In this post, I will be sharing with my readers, a short story that made me think about the qualities necessary to become a leader. I shall share the story first followed by how it influenced me to put on my thinking hat about the qualities necessary for a leader.

The elderly chief of a small tribal village had three sons, all of them fine young men. One day,

Chief: That is our holy mountain. The one among you who brings me back the most beautiful thing from there shall be the chief after I die.

The three brothers set out for the mountain. At it's foot,

Eldest brother: What a beautiful flower! I have never seen anything like it before. I will take it to father.

Second brother: So be it brother, we will climb the mountain.

Half way up the mountain, the second son found what he wanted,

Second brother: How smooth, colorful and round is this pebble, polished by the sand, wind & rain. It will be my gift to father.

And he too returned home.

The youngest continued to climb up the mountain. Many hours later he reached the top.

Youngest brother: Gasp! There is green, fertile land and a crystal clear lake on the other side of the mountain.

He stood for a long time, thinking and then slowly made his way home. After reaching home,

Chief: Ah! What have you brought for me, my last born?

Youngest son: Nothing, father. I was so overwhelmed by what I saw from the top of the mountain that I did not search for anything else father. That is the land where our tribe should move if we want to lead a better life.

The chief smiled (😊). Then,

Chief: You shall be the leader of our tribe, my son, for you have brought back the most precious gift of all from our holy mountain-"The gift of a vision for a better future".

This short yet meaningful story made me think, yes, it is important for a leader to have a vision for the future but what are the other necessary qualities that a leader should possess which will inspire people to follow their leader's footsteps and share his/her ideals. The following leadership qualities are the ones that came to my mind with respect to the above question,

• A leader should empower people to grow further and be a better version of themselves.
• Rather than blaming individuals for their mistakes, a leader should think about ways to fix them (have a plan B).
• Thinking about the greater good before taking a decision is another leadership quality.
• A leader should rely on people to do a good job instead of intimidating them to do a good job.
• Humility is another virtue of a true leader not self-assertion.
• Rather than asking people to know how to get things done, a leader shows how it is done.
• Another important and critical quality necessary to be a leader is to never take credit but to give credit where credit's due (It's about "Let's Go!! 😊" & "We" instead of "Go!! 😠" & "I").

Hope this post is interesting!! What other qualities do you think is necessary for a leader? Post it in the comments section.

Till another interesting post....Take care.

-Thejas 😉