Leader without title?

There is a Rickshawala in Ahmedabad who believes in finding something extraordinary in the ordinary. The meter in his rickshaw always reads ZERO. He believes in kindness and trust. Basically, you can pay him whatever you want…you can even refuse to pay him! It is completely upto YOU. The idea is that somebody has already paid in advance for your travel and if you wish, you can pay it forward. He trusts the universe and its goodness.

Photo Source: movedbylove

Robin Sharma’s book, ‘The leader who had no title’ is full of cliches. But he passionately talks about the leadership at an individual level. We often complain about lack of power and authority as most of us are not in leadership positions. But what if we don’t need a title to lead?

We all are managers by default. No matter what you do, you HAVE to manage. Our goals might be decided by somebody else but WE manage our time and other resources in a way that we fulfill the demands. Good managers use their resources smartly.

On the other hand, everybody is not a leader. Even those who are in leadership positions may not be the leaders in true sense. Leadership is a choice and lack of a title doesn’t affect it. Great teams don’t just have great leaders. They have team members that can lead themselves. Let’s say you are a part of cricket team. Even though your captain (leader with title) leads you, you have to take up responsibility of your own talent, practice etc. The captain doesn’t know you completely… even your coach doesn’t know you completely. Only you know what works for you. Other people, no matter how great they are at leadership, can only water the seed that is already there inside you. If you are an employee, your goals are set by your boss but only you can set your personal vision. Driving an auto rickshaw is not exactly a meaningful job for most of us but some people are leaders without a title.

In the book, one of Sharma’s characters happens to be a lady who is into the profession of house-keeping. She is not in a leadership position and no one expects her to like her job. But she is passionate. She says that the greatest freedom each one of us have as people is the freedom to choose how we view our roles in the world. Sometimes, we cannot change our job but we can change how we view it: we can make it interesting, part of something ‘bigger’ etc.