Neculai Fantanaru
Everything Depends On The Leader
Everything Depends On The Leader
Last night, quite by accident, I came across a short story entitled "The Painter and the Caliph" , by O. Henry. The main character, a painter named Gerard Plumers, was so talented and skilful, that he managed to render to each of his portraits an expression that revealed the model's state of mind. Nobody, not even he, could explain this mystery. At first, he earned a lot of money from selling the paintings he created by order in his small workshop. The orders were plenty. People often came to him and admired his work. Until complications began to emerge.
For example, one day, an acquaintance of the painter entered by chance in his workshop and saw the painting which was still in the easel. He closely looked at the drawing. He recognized the character. It was his very own banker. "He has the face of a crook", he said with an unshaken confidence. Then, he rushed off from the workshop and ran to the bank to withdraw his deposits. He arrived too late, the honest banker had ran away with the money.
Such scenarios happened more and more often. All those who had their portrait done by the great painter were unmasked. Because he had the gift to portray them exactly as they were in everyday life. He had the gift to reveal the model's hidden sins one after the other: their knavery, vileness, trickery. It's easy to understand why nobody stepped in the workshop of the famous painter after this. Because nobody wanted their true character, well hidden in everyday life, to be recognized.
Please, imagine that you enter in the workshop of painter Gerard Plumers, who has the power to reveal true human nature in his paintings. On his easel lies his latest creation, a beautiful masterpiece that, amazingly, depicts the very face of your boss. What would be your reaction when looking at the successful painting? If you know the true nature of your leader, would you still follow him?
The way you perceive your boss has a huge effect on your performance and efficiency. If the painter has rendered your boss' face in the most frightening manner, I'm afraid the following scenario will happen:
The darkest – yet most frequent scenario. You're at work. You try to concentrate on work, but the screen in your mind is too often depicting the image of your boss, whose true nature was revealed to you by the painter, with such mastery and details, through his paining.
You feel growing inside you a darkness that is too numb to be grief and too cold to be anger. You try to fight these feelings and keep yourself busy. But no work or exhaustion can chase that bitter taste of truth, that feeling of deep frustration and uncertainty the painting revealed.
Little by little, the face of your boss begins to occupy a hidden place in your heart. You know who he really is and what he's capable of, you feel him being intimidating, threatening, distant, hard to understand and not at all concerned about your feelings and those of people, generally, and that troubles your soul, brain, thoughts, consciousness. You feel your every muscle, joint and bone overloaded by your anger and negative emotions. Pride doesn't allow you to cry, but you would do it, knowing that you made the mistake of your life by taking service with the company run by such a tyrannical leader.
Whenever your thoughts go crazy, you remember that the face of your boss is always there, staring at you with indescribable tyrant look. Every day, he persists in his presence, by taking care of business. While working, you are troubled with worries, you force yourself to regain your work performance, but his image always returns: that of an angry bully, intimidating and anxious, who always loses his temper, a narrow-minded, deafening person, who screams everything in your face and arouses fear in your heart.
Do you have the courage to see yourself exposed by your own portrait? If you rank high in leadership, imagine people seeing the portrait depicting your true nature. Would you leave them before they leave you?
In everyday life, you can expose the desired expression of your face. But the portrait painted by Gerard Plumers depicts you as you really are. Are you afraid? Are you ashamed of yourself? Are you vexed by what you see?
Distrust between people and their leader complicates the efficient interaction, which determines a serious fracture within the company. The behavior of the people surrounding the leader indirectly shows his nature. If he doesn't lead creativity and passion in work, he will be abandoned by his team which, just like him, will linger and fall back.
Conclusion: No matter how much you want to hide your true nature, it always comes out and is reflected by the quality of work of the entire team. After more or less time, people around you learn to "read you", they discover your true nature and this will have a tremendous impact on your and them.
If you notice that others perceive you differently than how you really are, this is your fault and it is owed to the lack or problems in communication between you and your team.
Can you wake up in people the feeling of belonging to your leadership? What do you consider that is the most precious quality that people expect from you? Through what is reflected that quality? Does it highlight your true nature? Does it indirectly suggest your true nature?
Why read this book? Because it is critical to optimizing your performance. Because it reveals the main coordinates after that are build the character and skills of the leaders, highlighting what it is important for them to increase their influence.
The essential characteristic of this book in comparison with others on the market in the same domain is that it describes through examples the ideal competences of a leader. I never claimed that it's easy to become a good leader, but if people will...
For some leaders, "leading" resembles more to a chess game, a game of cleverness and perspicacity; for others it means a game of chance, a game they think they can win every time risking and betting everything on a single card.
I wrote this book that conjoins in a simple way personal development with leadership, just like a puzzle, where you have to match all the given pieces in order to recompose the general image.
The aim of this book is to offer you information through concrete examples and to show you how to obtain the capacity to make others see things from the same angle as you.
Without considering it a concord, the book is representing the try of an ordinary man - the author - who through simple words, facts and usual examples instills to the ordinary man courage and optimism in his own quest to be his own master and who knows... maybe even a leader.
