Our time has come

A good friend passed on an article about The Gentle Leader. The article talks about the contrary leader, the one who cares about people more than profits, who builds communities rather than empires, who inspires others to exceed and succeed him. The author believes that the corporate wolves have shown to be greedy, selfish, responsible for state of the economy today. The time has come for the gentle leader.

I would like to believe that. Except my corporate scars remind me who holds the purse strings and signs the checks. It is one of the reasons why I decided 4 years ago to walk my own path with my good friend Tony. The road less travelled has not been without its share of hardship but I can wake up and believe I'm making decisions for all the right reasons.

I am pragmatic. In larger companies, it is about the bottom line, shareholder value, profits, beating out the competition. Without any those, there is no business, and without business, there are no employees, the people I would care about and serve.

But there should be a better way, a compromise at worst where the gentle leaders are allowed to nurture, inspire and build communities because success is built by people and not defined by the products which do not exist without the people.

We should lead our teams the same way we nurture our children. By giving them opportunities to grow, make mistakes, guide and mentor. So that one day, they may become even greater than we are. For what better legacy to leave behind than the knowledge that we have enabled others to accomplish a thousand-fold more than we could ever do by ourselves.