The supreme leader

Lord Shiva has been accepted as an ultimate in leadership since time immemorial. He had the love and respect of all the people. His doors were open to all. He was entreated by Ravana as well as by Rama. Everybody was in awe of the powers he had in his command. He had the perfect control of his senses and he was always ready to serve the people.

When poison was produced during churning of ocean by Sura and Asura, Lord Shiva voluntarily drank it for the survival of humanity. Here, it is to be stressed that he did not allow the venom to travel below the neck because the venom in heart would be a trigger for disaster.

The venom at a leader’s heart is a sure recipe for catastrophe for the country. A leader must have compassion in his heart for the masses. There may be a simile here to the quality of a leader. A true leader must be ready to confront the risks and lead by example. He must go beyond boundaries and be in touch with ground realities.

Decisiveness is key and good leaders make decisions that are the need of the hour no matter how difficult they may be. The most significant component of such decision-making is self-confidence. They always take responsibility for both the success and failure of their teams. While subordinates might pass on the blame to others in case of mistakes, leaders have to ultimately claim all responsibility for them. A leader may show his anger by admonishing the junior staff but he should not keep anger in his heart and hold grudges or mentally harass his staff.

In the larger scenario, a leader has to show compassion to all and must be graceful enough to forgive others for their utterances. An inspiring leader should be above greed, corruption, hatred, anger, lavishness, cronyism and propensity for earning money from illegal means. India needs leaders who have some of the qualities of Shiva, the supreme leader.