How successful leaders work with faith and use it as a winning trait

“To believe without seeing is faith,

To forgive without asking is love,

To believe without questioning is trust.”- Avishek Prasad

How we think controls everything we do and where we place our trust can play an important role in our success. We typically act on our hunch or what we believe and the beliefs of top performers and leaders can teach us a lot.

At a gathering to celebrate 40 years of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), the Chairman and Managing Director of the company Shri Mukesh D Ambani, paid a rich tribute to Dhirubhai Ambani. He said that he learned four important lessons from him: Courage, Empathy, Absolute Faith in Technology and Talent, and Dil Ka Rishta. Due to these, he could steer RIL successfully to newer heights, he said.

Because of Dhirubhai’s faith in technology, in 1975, Reliance Group’s Naroda textile unit was recognised as ‘The Most Modern Textile Complex of India’ by the World Bank. Ironically, it was a bad phase in the history of the textile sector in Ahmedabad, as the mills had begun downing their shutters for some reason or the other. In such an adverse situation, the fabric manufactured using modern technology at Dhirubhai’s unit became so acceptable and popular among the masses that his textile brand ‘Vimal’ became a household name overnight.

Successful leaders invest their time in self reflection activities and follow the beliefs that guide them through their journey. This belief system empowers them to respond to their surroundings from a place of faith.

Top performers across industries exhibit some common traits that support their winning streak, of which placing their trust in the universe is a big one. They understand very well that letting go the need to control situations and their outcomes is the best way to steer from performance pressures. By doing so, they release the need to obsess over outcomes allowing them to use their energy to better focus on their craft. Such leaders exhibit the qualities and values that have been learnt along the way of their experience and are the life skills that help them.

Here’s how successful leaders work with faith and use it as their winning trait:

1. Honesty

Effective leaders must demonstrate high levels of honesty and integrity. This is essential to inspiring confidence and trust from employees and other followers, without which a leader is not likely to be effective. To cultivate a strong sense of trust and reliability, leaders have to be honest with themselves and others.

2. Desire to Lead

To be an effective leader, one needs to have a genuine desire to serve others. If a leader gives clarity to his subordinates, subordinates will be more likely to perform better. Also, trust is earned when the leader shows the desire to lead.

3. Ensuring flexibility

Switching from meetings, conversations and managing emails at work takes a great deal of focus along with surrendering the final outcome of each action item. This requires a faith based system which allows leaders to trust that things will be realized as planned, further allowing them to be flexible in the face of unforeseen changes.

4. Having confidence in their abilities

Powerful leaders and high performers know what they bring to the table. They are sure of their abilities and ignore the noise around them in the form of chatter, criticism and naysayers. They believe in embracing faith and trusting their instincts over fearing the unknown.
Nobody has ever gotten to a place of influence and success without facing the demons of insecurity, anxiety and fear of failure. It is important to lean on faith and to trust the people we work with, to enable the power of inner light. Leaning on faith at work can demand courage and confidence, but will surely yield a rewarding experience transforming the way you lead.