At school, I would invariably challenge the validity of the proverb that said, you can take the horse to the pond, but you cannot make it drink. My contention then used to be: when you already know that the horse would not partake from the pond at your bidding, then why should anyone spend time, money, and effort to take the animal to the pond—considering the objective is that the horse must drink? If it is the final decision of the horse, I wondered what factors would prevent it from drinking, or what enabling circumstances can prevail upon the horse so that it gets motivated to drink?

Several decades of work experience have brought home the point that the job of the leader/manager is not just to take people towards an objective, but more importantly, to convince them to achieve the objective as something that is of direct interest to their own well-being.

The idiomatic phrase has been redone as: you can lead a person to acquisition of knowledge but you cannot make him think. To get any individual to put on the hat of thinking, several ingredients ought to be present—like a curious mind, engaging and mature emotions, or mind. The stability of thought is critical for thinking.

This is to mean that a manager or leader must have the skill to offer to one or more followers an opportunity—or at least be able to present them with a solution to a gripping problem—but you cannot force them to accept and act upon it. To undertake the required action, the need is for persuasion and conviction, which is the primary role and responsibility of the manager/leadership.

The typical hallmark of an influencing leader is the ability to remain courageous and compassionate, simultaneously. The best example of this is from the world of political leadership, and that is Abraham Lincoln. He was creative and believed strongly in the empowerment of people, including his own cabinet colleagues—a few of them were his hard-core critics and had lost the elections to him, yet he onboarded them into his cabinet under his principled thinking that rested on the belief that these ministers were the best brains of America, and hence should be used for the overall good of the country. Is there any leader worth his salt who has the self-confidence to enact similarly? None, regrettably. They are unsure, with massive inadequacies of self-confidence and self-belief. His most admirable trait was his self-confidence to navigate through the presence of the best minds in his cabinet. He was proud to select his opponents as Secretary of State and Internal Security—he exuded faith in his own skill to influence their submission to him as the President and Leader. He gelled these diverse individuals into a team of the brilliant minds of that era to rule and govern America.

Influencers are never scared to do what is right. Hence, Lincoln couldn’t be frustrated out of his devotion, commitment, and ambition to keep moving forward against the powerful regressive forces of slavery. His critics, assured by his strong sense of integrity, never feared rebuke, retaliation, or reprisals from him.

Abe, the Honest, as he was nicknamed, serves even today as a beacon of light to the current crop of politicians, to help themselves build their own sense of integrity, honesty, and morality; if any one of these traits is lacking, the leader wouldn’t be able to make the masses drink. Unfortunately, in our land of the pure, the word politician has come to be associated with misgovernance, misdeeds, and an out-of-focus moral compass.

Our own Quaid, Jinnah, was a great influencer-leader... in that order. He convinced the Muslims of India on the narrative of the two-nation theory, leading up to the carving and creation of Pakistan from within the boundaries of the subcontinent. Again, like Lincoln, he stood tall because of his acute sense of maintaining discipline of all sorts in his personal and professional life, coupled with recognition of the need to keep conflict of interest as an aspect of strict adherence. He appointed no relative to any post.

In the last seventy-seven years, without exception, all politicians have flouted basic norms of decency and good governance, and instead have indulged in wholesale nepotism and favouritism. The last of the leaders who, in the truest sense, was an influencer was Z.A. Bhutto; regardless of whether one likes him or not, it is an irrefutable fact that he brought a paradigm shift in the thinking of this nation. Power to the people was his mantra, despite himself being a feudal.

The demands of the corporate sector vis-à-vis leadership traits aren’t significantly different from those in the field of politics. CEOs and managers are expected to possess an ability to be learners—always; a ready willingness to take responsibility more for failure than success; a strong cognisance of their own weaknesses; the tenacity to hold back emotions; a skill to make tumultuous waters into a Pacific station; a good sense of humour, with the ability to communicate with clarity; and above all, to remain consistently focused on achieving the desired goals through active participation.

In the fast-paced current environment, it is imperative to have leadership that is not merely concerned about power grab, but is sincerely devoted to guiding, inspiring, and motivating people through inclusivity and empowerment. In all facets of national development, the need is to foster strong leadership qualities that must serve as quid pro quo to achieving success for individuals, organisations, and nations.

Sirajuddin Aziz
The writer is a Senior Banker & Freelance Columnist.