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Attributes of a leader

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CIOL Bureau
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Speaking at CIOL- Dataquest Awards event held in Mumbai, on leadership attributes Sandeep Arora, Head of Accenture Delivery Centres for Technology, India, highlighted a book titled The Innovator's Dilemma. "We are one of the few companies closest to proving that wrong, and are on the verge of overcoming that," he said.

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He drew attention to a study conducted some time ago by NASSCOM, which said that India would face a shortage of workers by half a million by 2010. "That is a quantity problem. There is a problem around the middle layer as we aspire to go up value chain. India will need leadership not only at the top but at the middle level as well," he noted.

Arora gave an example of the institute - Center for Creative Leadership. It has lists about a 100 leadership attributes. Some of those are: managing effective teams; building relationships; valuing diversity; communications; managing change; decision making; managing politics; taking risks and innovations; managing strategy; being adaptable; managing yourself; global perspective; multiple cultures, etc.

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Arora talked about the framework, that he had come to adapt, which was like is the leadership diamond. The diamond has four tips.

He said: "One tip is vision -- it is hard to imagine a leader without having the ability to set the vision; set the direction. You could have vision, but if you don't have the vision to execute, then it is not worth a lot. The second tip of the leadership diamond is the ability to execute. If you don't have the courage to execute, that doesn't get you very far. The ability to execute can get in the way. As they say, it is 10 percent vision and 90 percent perspiration.

"If you have the vision and you have the ability to execute, but you don't have the courage to execute, that doesn't get you very far. That's the third tip of the diamond. That requires having to deal with ambiguity, having the confidence.

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He gave Hitler's example as a leader having the first three qualities, but missing the fourth. It is said that before he died, Hitler said he was too kind. "That's the fourth tip - having integrity, ethics, stewardship, developing others, how to handle power, etc.," Arora added.

There are aspects of being a leader that can be taught in a business school. However, a business school is not going to tech you courage. Ethics part is perhaps something people can work on over time. Finally, vision is something like sometimes you wake up one day and realize "that's what I want to do."

A good leadership diamond would create something like - someone who is forward thinking, creative and visionary, -- in terms of vision; execution - well informed, results oriented; attention to detail; courage -- ability to stand alone; free and responsible; and ethics - somebody who values people, team player, principled, good communicator, moral compass, etc.

Accenture was the Presenting Sponsor at the EnterpriseConnect Awards 2007. HP was the Platinum Sponsor, while Seagate and NetCore were the Associate Sponsors.