The Leadership And Traits Of A Leader In Dalai Lama

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Introduction

Leadership is a subject that has long excited interest among people but in business, leadership means the ability of a company’s management to make sound decisions and inspire others to perform well. Leaders are those who influence a group of people towards the achievement of targeted goals. According to M. Chemers, “leadership is the process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”. So leadership plays a vital role in influencing, motivating, and enabling other person to contribute towards the success of the organization and personal life as well.

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His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama then named Lhamo Dhondup was born on 6th July, 1935 in Taktser in the Amdo province, north eastern Tibet. He was recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama at the age of two changing his name to TENZIN GYATSO when he could recognize all the belongings of the 13th Dalai Lama brought by a search team consisting of all highly ranked monks and officials of Tibet.

He started his monastic education at the age of six and eventually assumed full political duties on 17th November 1950 at the age of 15. At the age of 23, along with passing the examination where he received the Geshe Lharampa degree which was equal to the highest doctorate in Buddhist philosophy, Dalai Lama was forced to escape into exile because of the brutal suppression of the Tibetan national uprising in Lhasa by the Chinese troops.

Since then His Holiness has been living in Dharamshala, northern India. He has been traveling around the world spreading the ideals of peace and equality, advocating the welfare of Tibetans and propagating the ideals of Buddhism. People around the world know him as an influential political leader and the Noble Peace prize winner. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2019)

The Great Man Leadership Theory which explains that leaders are born and not made is the most appropriate in case of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. The birth of His Holiness was already prophesized and predicted by the renowned monks of Tibet. The place, house and family to whom the 14th Dalai Lama was to be born were all seen in dreams by one of the highly ranked and respected monk of Tibet.

His Holiness unlike other leaders fights a fierce battle for the freedom of his country through words and not with weapon and hate. He believes that nothing can be gained from violence. His peaceful manner and joyful approach to life is inspiring despite the fact that he has lived most of his life as a refugee. His Holiness endless efforts in spreading and educating people about living life peacefully, with compassion, the ability to forgive and tolerate has changed the perspective of humungous number of people around the world.

Dalai Lama possesses endless skills, behaviors and traits of a leader. However if I list some of them:

Leadership Skills-inspiring others, a good communicator and empathy (BRAIN DOWNARD, 2019)
Leadership Behavior- compassionate leader, acting with integrity and coaching people
Leadership Trait- knowledge, enthusiasm and courage

The Dalai Lama has shown people with his action and setting examples based on his belief of living life peacefully with the ability to forgive and tolerate. He has lived by his belief not contradicting between his words and actions. The Dalai Lama from the time of escape has used his life as an example and showed people that one needs to put their belief into action in order to make it worthwhile. Moreover his philosophy of settling a dispute and bringing prosperity through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge and humane ways has inspired a lot of people around the world. Dalai Lama best describes a compassionate leader. He believes that all humans are equal and must be treated with equality. He strongly believes and promotes the human values of compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment, universal responsibility and self discipline. He encourages and motivates people to have a sense of universal responsibility where in we feel the pain of others as if they were ours. His Holiness enthusiasm and endless efforts in promoting the values in an attempt to achieve world peace has him known as one of the best advocates for peace in the world. He has also become an international figure invited to all corners of world to give speeches and talks. (Bailey)

His Holiness has always led his life according to his beliefs of human values of love and compassion. He is one of those leaders who perform through his actions rather than verbally illustrating them. His long lasting battle for the freedom of his country proves him as leader acting with integrity whereby he puts his belief of non-violence into action by forgiving and tolerating his enemy’s brutality. The Dalai Lama has always put his life as an example while conveying messages or teaching to the people. He never forces people to follow his religion in fact respects and appreciates all kind of religion. His words and actions have inspired people from all around the world because of which he is appreciated and respected by everyone. (Compassion and the individual)

Now a day’s people appreciate actions than words. Dalai Lama as a leader has always shown people through his actions in living being based on his beliefs and teachings. He has never been opposite to the words spoken and actions performed. His Holiness from the time of escape and till date has used his life as an example putting his belief into action by going out of his way in spreading peace, compassion and care being the main features of Buddhism throughout the world. He has been successful in changing the mind and attitude of people towards Buddhism which has cause Buddhism to become one so popular religion in the world. The Dalai Lama is now known around the globe for being a messenger of peace and compassion. (The Dalai Lama on Buddhism in practice)

I feel that I have been following the democratic leadership style to conduct any activity till date. For example, whenever group assignments are given and I had been appointed as the leader, I make sure that my group members are well informed about the assignments and their respective task to be performed. Moreover I always appreciate their opinions and ideas while doing the assignments. I try to create friendly atmosphere whereby they would be open to me about their opinions and ideas and vice versa. This kind of leadership style has been the most effective in my case resulting into productive outcomes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, leadership is a behavior of an individual that has the capacity to direct, motivate, and influence the activities of the groups to achieve the defined goals or objectives. Leadership involves the process that helps to guide, structure, change, and facilitates other people to work towards a shared goal of the organization.

Well, there is nowhere on the planet that would not benefit from more compassion. To quote HH Dalai Lama: “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.” So with this I came to know the importance and power of compassion for social unity, and also I was motivated to create more compassionate society.