Post date: Apr 07, 2010 9:36:46 AM

Like it or not, the leader is the role model for the team

'Yatha raja, tatha praja'. Though not exactly the same thing, the nuances of both are pretty similar. To put it simply, there is no point in preaching what you do not practice, because your team models itself on your behavior

If you have habits that are dangerous to the overall health of the company or the country, you can be pretty sure that before long your people are bound to follow in your footsteps. The obvious argument being, 'if the king -- or in the case of a company, the chairman -- can do it, why can't I?' And one bad habit multiplied a thousand fold is bound to bring the strongest citadel down! Good habits are also echoed in this manner.

There is this charming story of Mahatma Gandhi and a little boy who loved jaggery . The story goes that the boy's mother brought him to Gandhi and requested him to ask the boy to stop his habit. Gandhi refused to comply immediately, instead asked the mother to come back after a couple of weeks.

When the two of them returned, Gandhi told the boy to stop eating jaggery. Surprised, the mother asked him why he waited and he replied that he could not have advised the child a couple of weeks earlier as he himself used to eat jaggery. He had to try it himself before he could tell the child to do so!

The simplest and most visible of all company rules that are couched in hypocrisy is the one on punctuality, where the employee is expected to be at his desk at a given time and in some cases his pay is cut as well when he doesn't, and the leadership saunters in a good couple of hours later, invariably at mid-day.

The result: a disengaged employee who thence forward grudgingly carries out his duties under a cloud of resentment.