The River or the PondA Leader’s choice
Mayur Kalbag is a Leadership Coach, Corporate Trainer & Author who regulalry does corporate training in Fiji. This will be his regular column in our Jobs section on Saturdays providing readers some useful tips. He can be contacted via email: mayurkalbag@ hotmail.com
I am quite sure that after reading title of this column you might wonder what does it really mean. You may have asked yourself what is the relevance of a leader with a river or a pond. Let us find out the answer. What could be the most visible difference between a river and a pond? The answer is the fact that the river is always flowing and in continuous ‘forward-movement’. On the other hand the pond is always in a motionless state. Although beautiful and serene, the pond still seems in a state of pleasant stagnancy.
Although both are water bodies and both have the ability to inspire and enthrall people I still believe that, for a leader or a corporate professional it is better that he or she in a sense become like a river rather than stay like a pond. Let me explain this more clearly and through an example from real life.
Mahendra and Ronald had been working as senior supervisors for a large trading company in Singapore. They were extremely competent and had shown high levels of performance and therefore when the annual performance evaluation happened both of them were promoted to the position of ‘Team Leader’. They were assigned the responsibility of leading large teams. Six months had passed and it was the time for the half-yearly assessment of their performance. The assessment panel of three General Managers invited Mahendra to the conference room and began their assessment process. They looked at the progress report and realized that Mahendra had accomplished all the responsibilities that were bestowed upon him successfully. After his assessment was done they called Ronald. All the three general managers of the assessment panel evaluated his progress report and seemd to agree that he too, like Mahendra, had accomplished all the various tasks and responsibilities without any glitch. But then there was something more and different about the progress report of Ronald. There were three occasions when he had taken leave of absence. But this absence was for attending three Seminars specifically related to his work and there was one that was on the topic of Leadership skills Development. “I see that you missed a few days of office. You had taken leave of absence from your important work to attend some seminars. Why did you miss your office work?” one of panelists asked with a half-smile over his face. Ronald probably was not expecting this question. He took a deep breath and began responding to the panel members seated in front of him. “Dear Sirs, I completely agree that I had taken six days of leave from my work but I had done that for a reason and I wish explain that to you. I have always believed in the philosophy of continuous and progressive growth. There has to be some kind of forward movement for me in order to grow in my professional career.