And sometimes you just have to follow!

There could be situations where some of a leader's fellow travellers, normally called followers, would be able to figure the way out better than the formal leader. The leader then just has to follow gracefully rather than standing on his or her prestige.

Like that, not only the team would have the best leadership suited to the particular circumstances but some members of the team would also get a chance to try their hand at actually leading. This is the best leadership training a leader can impart to the others.

I am a work in progress!

Some months ago, an Indian journalist, who had just interviewed the then Pakistani president, Parvez Musharraf, derisively described him as a work in progress. I have a contrary view on this because I consider ‘work in progress’ a compliment. A finished or complete product can not be further improved, as if the life for it has come to a stand still. There is no progress for it and, therefore, no hope.

Everyone alive is a work in progress and the progress should ideally stop only when life stops, not before that. But a vast majority of human beings learn, grow or progress no more when they reach a certain age or acquire a certain academic, social or financial status. They are the living deads. Fortunately, I am not one to be counted among them, since I know that I have to grow and develop in a huge variety of dimensions to attain my potential and that task is not going to be over until my death. So, I am and will remain all my life a work in progress, and that quite happily.