Formal and Informal groups profoundly influence the behaviour of its constituent members. The group develops unique attributes and these get passed to the members. Thus an Indian Citizen, who migrates and settles in a foreign country, gets absorbed and forms part of the society there and inherits many of the unique features of the people of that country. Groups are in turn influenced by the leadership that moulds, shapes and directs its thinking and culture. But what makes powerful Leaders. A high sense of initiative, a capacity to motivate large number of followers, and functioning with a tireless mission and zeal are qualities of an accomplished leader. Within such a leader is the trait of "self-discipline". We so far understood discipline as the essence of following the rules and codes of the society

Self-discipline is a trait of self-control that a person exercises on himself, without reference to demands or needs of others.

Self-discipline is control that one practices within himself. It is the perfect form of training through which the individual exercises full power and direction over his mind and body. It is not achieved by abiding the regulations set by others, but it is self-activated by one's own initiative and effort, projecting attention inwards. This is the most perfect form of discipline. Self-control benefits the individual to secure capabilities like emotional control, thought control, behaviour control, and qualities of steadfast perseverance i.e. capacity to concentrate and fulfil particular tasks with uninterrupted zeal and efforts. Perfect or total self-control leads to promotion of self-awareness or self-cognizance. The practitioners secure eminence and greatness. They are able to inspire the whole society through their wisdom. They are not so much concerned with what they consider as good for themselves, as with the ultimate good of the society as a whole. Examples of some such great men of our times, to lead mankind through self-discipline and perfect behaviour control, are Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindra Nath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda. They concerned themselves with the norms of human social behaviour. They set an example of human behaviour, which propounds the supreme good of human life and which formulates the judgements of right and wrong, and good and evil. They are leaders for the whole nation, nay for humanity as a whole, both present and future.

All persons cannot achieve perfect self-control or self-discipline, i.e. control of the mind, body and behaviour. However partial or limited self-control can be achieved by many and directed towards fulfillment of particular tasks, i.e. task-wise self-control (also termed as 'devotion to a task'). An example is a student who prepares arduously for the examination. He practices self-control to pool his energy totally towards a specific goal. Once the goal is achieved, this motivation automatically terminates and he reverts to the normal behaviour. Other example of distinguished individual achieving near miracle feats like scaling the Everest or swimming across the English Channel etc.

Quoted below are extracts from article "Self Discipline" by Robin S. Sharma, LL.M, an internationally known speaker on executive development topics and the best selling author of Mega Living. (Web site: http://www.w-win.com/webb/article990428-08.htm)

"Study anyone who has achieved a measure of greatness, from the CEOs and entrepreneurs who have built wildly successful businesses to the best mothers, fathers, teachers and poets and you will be studying discipline in motion. Discipline is the cornerstone of self-mastery. The ancient Eastern book of wisdom, the Bhagavad-Gita says: "without discipline he has no understanding of inner-power; without inner-power, he has no peace; and without peace, where is joy?"

"Self- discipline is a fundamental virtue to inner-power. Discipline is the source, the wellspring that lets you live the life that you deserve. You must strengthen your inner core if you are truly dedicated to manifesting your highest potential for personal and professional success. With discipline, you will possess the inner fire needed to focus on your primary goals and realize your dreams."

Mr. Robin S. Sharma further adds-

"Discipline means that you take time away from the little emergencies which seem to eat up your day to kindle the fire of self-mastery. Discipline means that you get up early to go for a run on a freezing winter's day because you made this one of your personal mastery milestones and you are dedicated to raising the level of your physical fitness. Discipline means that you refuse an invitation to go out to a party on Saturday night because you had planned to review your goals and refine your purpose statement and think deeply about where your personal, professional and spiritual life is going. Discipline is having the power to turn off the TV and go into your study to read some of those books that you know will truly improve your effectiveness. Discipline is having the bravery and the inner-strength to stop giving so much time to the unimportant things in your life and to start directing your energy to those high-impact activities which will truly make a measurable difference in the richness of your life.

Integrating the habit of discipline into your days takes effort, willpower and courage. Having the discipline to follow through on the life goals you have set for yourself and living the kind of life you have imagined in your mind's eye is a very brave way to live. It is a very noble way to live. It is also a very liberating way to live because you have become the master of your own life. You begin to take control of your destiny. It's the source of great enlightenment. You set your course and then you have the resolve to follow it. And this also leads to tremendous amounts of confidence because you realize that you alone are the influencer of your life and if you don't like what you see, you can change it. You shape your circumstances rather than letting them shape you. You become the master of your life rather than letting life master you."

An example of accepting self-discipline and strictly functioning within prescribed parameters can be found in Mother Nature. Discipline is the inherent quality of 'Nature'. We call it the laws of Nature. Nature is uniform and universe. Water quenches thirst every day and everywhere. It happens every time. (Yesterday, today and tomorrow). The same cause produces the same effect. Nature is not only disciplined, but it is accurately and exactly disciplined. But for this there can be no science of Physics or Chemistry. Greek philosophers identified the laws of Nature as:

• Law of Unity of Nature

• Law of Uniformity of Nature

• Law of Universal Causation.

Could it happen, that the sun did not shine in the East on any day, anywhere at the appointed hour? Further discussion on this subject will amount to entering the realm of philosophy and drifting away from the discussion on 'discipline'.

Ordinary individuals can be disciplined and mass resurgence activated through effective leadership. Leadership attributes are gained by adding the qualities of initiative and innovativeness to self-discipline. An effective leader organizes from the scratch. He expounds a cause, inspires people and attracts followers. He guides them, pools their energy and steers ahead the team in its course of action. A leader should propagate a basic mission or goal to inspire his followers to work for a noble cause and set his own example. How can leaders who cannot control themselves, be able to guide others? Misery awaits followers, who adhere to such leaders. Self discipline and identity of what is preached and what is practiced is the mark of effective leadership.

Leaders should influence people. What they think is not so important, but how they unfreeze wrong thoughts from the minds of people and move them to think in the way the leader wants, is the desired quality to influence people. Certain qualities of a leader make him successful and enable him to overtake others in the field. Five main qualities are listed by Fayol and Tead adds ten more supplementary qualities. However all the skills can be broadly categorized into under three basic skills viz.,

1. Technical:
   Ability to use knowledge, methods techniques and equipment necessary for performing specific tasks, acquired from experience, education and training.

2. Human:
   Ability to and judgement in working with and through people include an understanding of motivation and an application of effectiv:

3. Conceptual:
   Ability to understand complexities of the overall organization and where one's own operation fits into, to act in fulfillment of organizational objectives and not just one's own group objectives.

1. Self confidence

2. Ability to communicate

3. Integrity

4. Intelligence

5. Ability to inspire

6. Courage

7. Flexibility of mind

8. Good judgement

The above list cannot be considered as comprehensive. But we may broadly say that the leader must have all the skills necessary to fulfil his functions.

The leader should work towards unity and cohesiveness of the organization and ensure that the members therein feel a pleasant and satisfying experience to be there. This membership can be maintained by three basic functions.

1. The leader should remain close to the group, have frequent interaction with the members and ensure that he remains acceptable to them

2. He should see that the work pattern are stable and understandable and the group achieves its tasks and

3. Thirdly he must ensure effective communication between members.

The following are the five functions of the Leadership.

1. Leadership renders a service by multiplying the contribution of every individual who is also its beneficiary

2. It makes decision - after calculated search for facts and then weighing them properly.

3. It elicits response - from subordinates or followers by giving them sufficient understanding of the tasks to motivate them to accomplish those.

4. It achieves results by guiding human energy in definite direction for a specific purpose

5. It is willing to be different than other non-leaders - by maintaining higher discipline and standard of performance

Generally Management and leadership are thought as same thing. All effective managers are also mostly effective leaders. But there is more to managing than just leading. Managing involves planning, organising and staffing, as well as controlling. If the Manager happens to be a good leader, It helps the manager to understand human factor and help him to produce desired results.

Both Managers and Leaders in their respective roles have to deal with people. Leadership means influencing people. There cannot be leaders with followers. Leaders should stimulate intelligent self-interest response from followers, so that the leader and followers act in a reciprocal way. Individual wills of the people in the group of followers should close in and merge as one driving force, to accomplish some common goal.

On their part the managers are required to understand the roles assumed by people, their individuality and personalities. Individuals are much more than merely a productive factor in management's plan. Managers and people they lead are interacting members of social system. It is the people, who make the laws that bind the managers, to lay down ethical standards to guide behaviour and establish tradition of human dignity.

Different styles of leadership are recognised by modern management thinkers and this is a vastly discussed subject. There are hundreds of web sites on this subject. Internet is rightly an ocean of knowledge to those who find the time and expertise to dive therein. For the benefit of interested readers the addresses of a few web sites dealing with prominent aspects of 'Leadership' qualities are furnished below. Those who want to further enrich their knowledge may access any or all of them. All these are commercial sites, but well recognized.