The Secret Red Book of Leadership by Singh Awdhesh

Author:Singh, Awdhesh [Singh, Awdhesh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisdom Tree
Published: 2020-04-19T16:00:00+00:00

PART IV

THE FACADE OF A LEADER

1

A Pleasant Personality

I knew that I had come face to face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself.

—Oscar Wilde

Leaders have never been the epitome of virtues as they have many negative qualities in them like excessive desire, unbridled ambition, hunger for power, ruthlessness and deception. These are present in all of us too, but perhaps they are in excess in leaders, as from these evils, leaders develop their great virtues. However, not many understand the intimate connection between good and evil. Hence, leaders have to create a facade to cover the evil.

Leaders must appear not what they are, but what people wish to see in an ideal leader.

In order to attract others, a leader must have an attractive personality. It is not without reason that heroes and heroines in books and movies have attractive and pleasant personalities. It is not that ordinary¬looking people lack courage, intelligence or that they don’t love—but no producer would like to cast an unattractive man or woman as a hero or heroine in his film. The audience is unlikely to spend their money and time to see people who are unattractive or ordinary looking. They need idols they can admire. Mae West, an American actress, singer, playwright and screenwriter said, ‘Personality is the glitter that sends your little gleam across the footlights and the orchestra pit into that big black space where the audience is.’

Leaders have to sell themselves to their followers and good packaging is an absolute must to attract the attention of the customers. The polishing, finishing and the colours of any item like car, refrigerator and mobile phone actually play no role in enhancing the performance of the item, yet they are extremely important in selling the product. Leaders too must develop a great exterior to be liked by the people. LeRoy Neiman, an American artist known for his brilliantly coloured, expressionist paintings and screen prints of athletes, musicians and sporting events said, ‘When I paint, I seriously consider the public presence of a person—the surface facade. I am less concerned with how people look when they wake up or how they act at home. A person’s public presence reflects his own efforts at image development.’

Who knew this better than Steve Jobs, the founder and the CEO of Apple Inc.? He believed that computers should not merely be useful, but also beautiful and even the packaging must be attractive. Jonathan Ive, the senior vice president of design at Apple Inc, who designed many of Apple’s products, including the MacBook Pro, iMac, MacBook Air, iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, iPad Mini and iOS 7 said, ‘Steve and I spend a lot of time on the packaging. I love the process of unpacking something. You design a ritual of unpacking to make the product feel special. Packaging can be theatre, it can create a story.’

In fact, among the patents that Jobs and Ive shared, there were several designs of iPod and iPhone boxes.

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