400th Blog Contemplation: Is True Leadership like Diamond with Five “C’s?

Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.  -Confucius

Leadership is like diamond. If you take a diamond and looked closely at it through its various facets, you would see different qualities each time you turned the diamond. 

The five Cs of diamonds are the carat, clarity, color, cut, and confidence, so is true leadership like diamond,  both nature and nurtured?  Is raw leadership like the diamond in the Rough...it takes wise eyes, right methodology and tools to discover and polish it?

1. Carat vs. Character

The value of diamond depends on its carat, the “gravity” of leader comes from his/her character. Human beings are gifted with innate qualities that allow them to respond in different ways to the same circumstance, it is the response that defines the level of leadership being exhibited at that moment. Leaders develop at different rates and emerge as effective at the culmination of trust, awareness, practice/mastery and consistency. 

Leadership abilities are innate characteristics which are sometimes easily visible but they can as well be in a dormant state. These characteristics can become visible due to some newly acquired sense of drive. However, not everyone gets triggered by incidents but the chances are that some of them will. Therefore, there is always a strong possibility to nurture this suppressed talent amongst individuals.

2.Clarity vs. Competency

Diamond clarity is a quality of diamond relating to the existence and visual appearance of internal characteristics of a diamond called inclusions, and surface defects called blemishes. A diamond would shine anyways & surely more than any other rock piece that is "non" diamond. Similarly, leadership competency is just like diamond's clarity, certain leadership qualities are innate characteristics that you are either have or not, such as vision, integrity, consistency, confidence. etc. And no leader is perfect, just like diamond also has defects.

Every effective leader must have a balance of character and competence. Some human beings do nothing with their gifts, stay in comfort zone, or squander away their opportunity to live up to their potential. Some human beings recognize and cultivate ability to be effective in conveying the message and they strive toward maximizing their potential through self-study, self-development and self-mastery 

3. Color vs. Charisma

A chemically pure or structurally “perfect” diamond is “colorless’ or transparent, however, in reality, almost no gem-sized natural diamonds are absolutely perfect, indeed, such imperfect diamond shines with color, and  a diamond's color can either detract from or enhance its value; same as authentic leadership, it’s not perfect either, every leader has his/her own color.

Not every diamond has the same shining. Not every leader presents the same color. Every leader is unique. Just like the diamond. Leaders come in all shapes and sizes, all genders, all religions, and all races. And leaders are found within all "ranks" in an organization. The character, mindset, the circumstances, and situations decide the “color” or the charisma of leadership.

4. Cut vs. Capability

A diamond cut is a style or design guide used when shaping a diamond for polishing such as the brilliant cut. Cut does not refer to shape, but the symmetry, proportioning and polish of a diamond. The cut of a diamond greatly impacts a diamond's brilliance; this means if it is cut poorly, it will be less luminous.

A diamond should be polished, only specialists know how unpolished diamond looks like; so does leadership, raw talent is from nature, only wise eyes can discover and develop it,  it also need be polished, and all leaders, future and current, need development and coaching at some point or another in their lifetime. Natural talents are important, but not critical to greatness. Most leaders are made and the process of becoming one involves much inner growth.

Diamonds are formed under enormous pressure. Pressure plays a major role in the formation of diamonds deep below earth's crust. Only through the application of pressure, diamond is shining; so does true leadership in the real world, the pressure and trial will test the true color of character, energy,  capacity and capability.

5. Confidence

As far as fifth “C” of diamond, some put certificate, others use confidence, indeed, confidence is the right characteristics diamond and leadership co-share.

 Diamonds are not only charismatic, hard wearing and enchanting but also enhance their surroundings or the people they adorned. Likewise,  good leaders support others to shine and don't feel threatened by others brightness. They are multi-faceted and colorful for a number of roles, not being one dimensional. A true diamond-like leader can attract the other brightest, sometimes a diamond does not realize that it is a diamond but that doesn't change the fact that the subject is, in fact, a diamond.

Leader, are you a diamond?  There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.  --Benjamin Franklin 

Posted in: Food for Thought,Future of Leadership,metaphors