Leadership not only means an ongoing concern for people working for you, it also means nurturing them.

As a leader, one should be able to understand the art of delegation. Delegation involves trust, and trust means letting go of the urge to do everything yourself. This involves some risk, but the reality is that only when you disengage yourself can you empower another person. You have to be willing to tolerate initial imperfections in the process. Plus, you need to have an element of forgiveness, which is very important. Otherwise, people will be reluctant to take risks.

Leaders who believe in empowerment tend to allow gestational shortcomings during the learning curve. In rectifying and forgiving the slips of people, there is, however, a deeper motive: you are building a learning organisation. People can learn and grow only by making mistakes, but they blossom when they discover that here is a culture of learning-where errors of judgement or execution are not punished, but gently corrected.

How well people grow under your leadership is determined by how willing you are to let them grow.

In all this risk-taking, there is a reward, both for the leader and the learner-a lasting bond of mutual trust. It provides the basis for speedier decision-making. If there is too much watchfulness or too little provision for human error, the learning curve becomes much longer and the entire process of making decisions becomes slower.

How does one identify and empower future leaders? One way is by observing the person's commitment and involvement in a task or a project. Even as he develops the necessary skills while making occasional mistakes, what will always stand out in the actions of a potential leader is dedication, intensity and a passion to see things through. Successful leaders value and nurture such qualities in their people.