My best managers — be it in the Indian Police Service or at McKinsey — were not the charismatic ones with swagger or bravado.
Instead their biggest quality was this: In a crisis, when things became rough, they remained calm — no freaking out, no rude behavior, no knee jerk reactions.
Even if things were going badly, they stayed focused on doing the right thing rather than worrying about the ultimate outcome. Be it street riots in Kerala or client presentations in New York, the underlying leadership quality was always the same.
Everybody can have vision. A few people can execute it. But it is the rare one who can do it under adversity.
That is the real test of leadership. Simple, but exceptionally uncommon.
– Rajan