I was very fortunate enough to work closely with C-Level executives starting my career. There are those charismatic leaders who leave a mark on you - one such statement that has moulded my personal leadership style was "to rate ones work on the quality of team one has built - to take your vision forward". Remember that you will die some day.

There are many Alpha animals around us - which were trained to always win from the schooling days right! First in the class and i will get you bicycle - how many of us haven't heard this from dad? Now the question is how does these performers that grew themselves suddenly be successful in growing others?

“..to be successful as a leader requires a major transition for which many people are not adequately prepared nor trained.” - Ram Charan

I had an very interesting discussion once with an experienced sales person in his mid 50's. He was exceptional in performance for the company - How can we use your way to perform as a sales man to transfer to our dealers and others sales guys? Ha, now thats what I have learnt over years he said. But can you please articulate it. I cant and that's why I am not a leader but a performer. Exceptional self-awareness! (Make no mistake he was paid more than the country sales manager). A great lesson - Not to choose high technical achievers for managerial spots rather than true potential leaders. It cant be trained in a single course either! They need to be moulded.

Given the fact that people are driven when they have autonomy, can exercise mastery and find a purpose at work. 5 things you need to prepare for:

• Create a vision together with your team, with which they can identify and contribute
• Ability to guide others navigate by withstanding the urge to do it yourself - shift from “ doing” work to getting work done through others
• Significant shift in assigning time to ones own work to planning, delegating, coaching and motivating others
• Making their failures yours (holding their backs) and giving the due credit for their performance
• Understand the fact that your success is the success of the team and not anymore your individual contribution

In essence, you need to understand what drives you and learn how to use your motives to build positive relationships to serve others first, yourself second. That’s not always easy for people who have been at the top of the class all their lives. In fact, it’s a major shift that takes concentration and effort. Most of all it takes emotional intelligence

Ask yourself are you becoming one? More importantly, ask if you are managed by one?