Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders

© 2015 MSR Leadership Consultants India. All Rights Reserved. This is a nonprofit blog to share Professor M.S.Rao’s passion and vision to build one million students as global leaders by 2030. The use of this material is free provided copyright is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.in. This material may not be sold, or published in any form, or used in the provision of business services to a third party without permission.

Friday, 29 August 2025

Which Is Better, Mutual Fund Or Index Fund Or ETF? #profmsrao #story #li...

Thursday, 28 August 2025

Are You a Leader or a Follower?—Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.—21st-Century Philosopher & The Father of “Soft Leadership”

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." —Dwight D Eisenhower

When you look at leaders like Obama, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King, they all have one common thing. They are all followers of the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. These personalities excelled as leaders as they were good followers. Therefore, you need to be a follower first to excel as a leader. However, people interpret being a follower as a sign of weakness. On the contrary, it is a symbol of strength.

Plato was a follower of Socrates. Aristotle was a follower of Plato. Alexander the Great was a follower of Aristotle. Why did all these leaders succeed? It is because they were all followers of their leaders who learned the ropes and evolved as leaders in their areas.

You frequently hear about leadership. But hearing about followership appears to be strange, right? Followership helps in getting into the shoes of others and empathising with others, thus excelling as a leader. If you want to become a leader, you must first know about followership. Here are some characteristics of good followers.

Good followers never blame their bosses. They rarely blame their tools for non-performance. That doesn’t mean that they are ‘yes men’. They sort out privately whatever the differences and issues they have with their leaders.
They never surprise their bosses. They keep them informed about the developments and the actions taken. They continuously report with feedback and seek directions and solutions.
They don’t bother who receives credit for the good work done.
They take initiative and fix the problems without blaming others.
They are humble.
They are quiet doers and don’t make any noise about their achievements.
They are passionate to learn and growing and are always eager to learn the ropes.
They listen carefully and observe keenly.

In deference organisations, subordinates follow the orders of their superiors, who in turn set examples for their followers and excel as true leaders. However, we find few people in organisations who often blame their bosses and their organisations for all their problems. They rarely introspect and empathise. They prefer to criticise, condemn, and complain about others. Such people cannot excel as good followers.

Followership and Leadership

“The ultimate leader is willing to develop people to the point that they eventually surpass him or her in knowledge and ability." —Fred A. Manske, Jr.

It is unfair to assume followers as weak individuals. They follow their leaders because of the values and ethics of their leaders. They support because they are moved by the goals and objectives. It is also equally unfair to think that leaders are puppeteers and followers are puppets. In many cases, leaders are also followers as they act according to the wishes of their followers. Followership is a relationship with reciprocal responses from their leaders toward the goals. Both leadership and followership are inseparable. Once the goals are reached, then the leadership separates from followership, where followers carry certain takeaways to try and test as leaders.

As men appreciate women, the leaders appreciate their followers. However, the appreciation between the leaders and followers is that of values and principles and goals and objectives.

However, with the changing global scenario, the role of followers is drastically changing, and they need to collaborate with their leaders in achieving organisational goals. To put it in the words of leadership guru Warren Bennis, "Today's organisations are evolving into federations of networks, clusters, cross-functional teams, temporary systems, ad hoc task forces, lattices, modules, matrices- almost anything but pyramids with their obsolete top-down leadership. The new leader will encourage healthy dissent and value those followers courageous enough to say no."

Conclusion

"The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on." —Walter Lippmann

Followers are more loyal to their leaders than the leaders are loyal to their followers. In the history of mankind, we rarely see followers letting down their leaders. However, we find a few leaders letting down their followers and falling into the dustbins of history.

To sum up, behind the success of all leaders, there must be someone who laid the leadership ladder for success when they remained good followers. Only good followers can excel as good leaders, as they inculcate the qualities of leadership from their leaders.

Share if you care!

“Things You Don’t Know about Professor M. S. Rao” http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2015/10/things-you-dont-know-about-professor-m.html

Read my ‘Vision 2030 One Million Global Leaders’ URL: http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2014/12/professor-m-s-raos-vision-2030-one_31.html

Note: I had a brain haemorrhage. I was in bed for five months. My right hand has been numb and paralysed. I am recovering. Thanks for empathising with me. With gratitude. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFJrSRLHPUk&ab_channel=ProfessorM.S.Rao

Life is great!

Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.

Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants, India

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This nonprofit blog will share Professor M.S. Rao’s passion and vision to develop one million students as global leaders by 2030. Please do not cut articles from my blog; redistribute them via email or post them online. The use of this material is free, as long as the copyright is acknowledged and a reference or link is provided to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com. Without permission, this material may not be sold, published, or used to offer business services to third parties.

Which Is Better, Mutual Fund Or Index Fund Or ETF? #profmsrao #story #li...

Wednesday, 27 August 2025

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Tuesday, 26 August 2025

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Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Embrace Change to Lead from the Front—Professor M....

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Embrace Change to Lead from the Front—Professor M....: “ A change leader looks for change, knows how to find the right changes, and knows how to make them effective both outside the organisati...

Monday, 25 August 2025

Embrace Change to Lead from the Front—Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.—21st-Century Philosopher & The Father of “Soft Leadership”

“A change leader looks for change, knows how to find the right changes, and knows how to make them effective both outside the organisation and inside it." —Peter F Drucker.

People crave to change their food, clothes, lifestyles, and several other things. However, they resist when there is a change in management, policies, procedures, systems, and structures within their organisations. It sounds strange, right? People resist change when it is thrust upon them. Probably, because anything imposed will be opposed!

Treat Change as a Friend, not as a Foe

Some treat 'change' as a challenge, some as a learning, and some as an obstacle. Everything is there in your mind. You can treat 'change' as an opportunity to learn. You can treat it as an opportunity to grow. There is a need for the right attitude towards 'change' in today's world. And also, there is a need to develop an attitude to treat change as a friend rather than a foe.

The river that goes to sea undergoes several changes in direction during its journey, and sometimes at a slow and a swift pace. So is the case with human life. Throughout human life, man undergoes several challenges such as peaks, valleys, and smooth and rough terrains. The only successful people are the ones who accept and mould themselves as per the changing environment. The truth is that change is inevitable. Change is the mantra for your survival and success. The business scenario is changing rapidly, and organisations need to keep pace with the same and reinvent and evolve accordingly.

Leaders and Change

Leaders find it tough to manage and effect change. Leaders are aware that change is the only thing constant in this world. They are proactive and treat change as a friend rather than a foe. They are aware that change is the key to organisational survival and growth.

Jack Welch cautioned, "If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near." The only thing constant in the corporate world is change and competition. Every change is made for a reason. Nobody can survive without change. Change requires a new mindset, tool set, and skill set.

Unsuccessful Leaders and Change

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." —Richard Bach

Successful people often resist change, while unsuccessful people prefer to change, as the latter tend to think in multiple ways to achieve success. Unsuccessful people are also aware that success comes at a cost. When we look at a leader like Abraham Lincoln, he was unsuccessful several times. He made the world sit up and take notice during his brief tenure as the President of America by preserving the unity of America and ending slavery. He learned the lessons the hard way in his initial failures. He knew what did not work to reach the top, and that helped him become one of the best Presidents of America. Similarly, when we look at Edison, he was unsuccessful several times in inventing the bulb. But he made it possible as he knew what did not work.

Takeaways

“We are not creatures of circumstances, we are the creators of circumstance" —Disraeli

It is a fact that organisations that create change can move more rapidly than those that manage change. Creating change is possible only when there is cooperation on the part of the organisational members to create change constructively. Leaders can change the fate of their organisations with the stroke of a pen. Hence, they must learn to use their pens to create rather than to manage change with the changing times and technologies to ensure organisational excellence and effectiveness.