Thursday, August 30, 2007

Creating abundance

Father: "I want you to marry a girl of my choice"
Son: "I will choose my own bride!"

Father: "But the girl is the daughter of Bill Gates."

Son: "Well, in that case... ok!"

Next - Father approaches Bill Gates.


Father: "I have a husband for your daughter."

Bill Gates: "But my daughter is too young to marry!"
Father: "But this young man is vice-president of the World Bank."
Bill Gates: "Ah, in that case... ok!"


Finally Father goes to see the president of the World Bank.


Father: "I have a young man to be recommended as a vice-president."

President: "But I already have more vice-presidents than I need!"
Father: "But this young man is Bill Gates's son-in-law."

President: "Ah, in that case... ok!"

It seems that everyone is pretty much clear by now of the difference between management and leadership, but still people and organizations tend to practice more management than leadership. The above story is a great example of leadership. Managers manage scarce resources. Leaders create abundance: even If you have nothing, you can get anything.

That is what they’ve been teaching us in schools world over: a good manager utilizes the scarce resources effectively and optimizes processes. But there’s no leadership! A good leader doesn’t care of the current lack of resources but he clarifies what needs to be done and then finds ways to get the resources.

Let us give you another example. Anuruddha Bandara – or AB – is the co-owner of Wild Drift together with Ruki. When we were still at the old office – a dark and gloomy box compared to the new one – we sometimes needed a change of environment for brainstorming. We would pick a time when AB is not at the office and go downstairs to his room. Though it was a fairly small room with just a modest table and a couple of chairs, it was enough for us to have deep discussions of future and come up with breakthrough ideas.

AB’s room was a wonderful resource for us. Who knows, maybe the most important decisions in the future history of Unleash Talent Inc were made in that room. A manager would have stayed upstairs.

(Thanks Maliendra for sending us the story!)

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