Bottom Leadership

“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” -Steve Jobs.

Hardworking people are very rare to find these days, most people prefer smart worker. The doers, the misfits, the ones who never settle down till the job is done. The most difficult thing for such person is to follow an order. Most doers are comfortable leading the way than following the path.  The art of ‘Bottom leadership’ is something that has always been close to my heart. Whenever people ask me to follow, I’d just smile back and say “Yes boss, lead the way.” For some- following orders, staying in line, obeying rules is too hard to digest.  “You don’t need all the glory. If you let others take the credit, it makes them feel like they’re part of something special,” said Ralph Roberts. Bottom leadership is nothing but leading from the back and ensuring that the work is completed. Agreed, it takes pure strength to come up with ideas and steer ahead an initiative, but learning to hold the team together in spite of not getting a paramount role takes pure heart.

Most people see runner boys, executives, interns as the weaker class. Less seasoned, less qualified and even less interesting.  The hidden truth at times an open secret is that they are the true heroes at the end of the day. No remunerations, no perks, no praises, if lucky a pat on the back and a thank you for all their hard work. We often forget that the peons that do the rounds, the interns that make the excel sheets, the lower ranked executives that enter the data are all working to make our lives easier. Work is tough. Life is tougher! We all look for that cheat sheet that can make our work lighter.  A team is only as strong as its weakest link is what we learn from Bottom leadership.

The pure satisfaction that one gets by holding the chain together and making sure that the job is done, is priceless. Yes, we don‘t get paid royally or treated differently for the work we do but rest assured your base is solid. You know it end to end. No bank officer can verify without knowing how to enter nor can a person learn to run without having crawled. These runner boys, executives, interns are all silent angels, hidden leaders that knowingly or unknowingly whisper in our ears “Stay calm, I’m here.” Next time we see them, observe not look, listen not hear, respect not nod. We may even learn a thing or two from them.

Upwards and on wards..cheers!

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