India Needs Humane Leaders In All Sectors

As a management consultant and leadership coach, I work with and meet people from across sectors like businesses, social ventures, Internet and mobile startups, educational institutes, and also politicians and bureaucrats. Over the years I have realised that the concept of leadership has been bastardised by many people who claim to be leaders.

For example, most people think leaders have followers, but I say leaders do not need followers because leaders create more leaders with the humility to understand that the mission needs to continue even when they are not around.

Another popular misconception that most people have is that leaders achieve perfection in all that they do. My view is that leaders understand that perfection is a myth and continuous improvement is a reality. I always joke with them that the day you are perfect is the day you are in the box (or coffin as we call it in Goa where most of us get buried in one). That is a perfect state but please do not rush to get in there and stay out of the box for long as possible and strive to excel through continuous improvement.

Another fallacy is that most people believe that management and leadership are the same thing and interchangeable as semantics. Management focuses on processes, procedures, strategy, tactics, execution and systems, while leadership focuses on inspiring trust with all stakeholders, clarifying purpose, creating a shared vision and values and, most of all, on unleashing potential in everyone. Now the fact of the matter is: "Management is very important because if we do not have good management for daily requirements, then we will die today. However if we do not have good leadership, then we will die tomorrow". And therein lies the folly of several businesses, political parties, educational institutes and other organisations. They neglect the imperative of creating more leaders to take forward their mission.

Thus leadership learning over the years has misguided and created false notions like leaders are born (no, leadership is an acquired skill) or that leadership is about stature and personality. I always say that humility is the heart of leadership and trust is its soul. Unfortunately, most people take trust for granted and think they can fake trust and sincerity. These people also feel that humility and vulnerability are weaknesses, without realising that they are true powers and strengths and the real weaknesses are arrogance and false pride. It is this pride and arrogance of many that has taken them to their downfall. Leaders also need to be humane, which encompasses caring and compassion for people and animals and social responsibility towards the planet, society and community.

Now, why do I say humility and vulnerability are not weaknesses but powers? It does sound counter intuitive, right? Think about it this way: Is there anything in this world we can do alone? No, we are so interdependent on every person who helps us to carry our vision forward, be it the people in our innermost core or the people who do the menial jobs. Every person is important in the ecosystem be it the janitor or the waiter or the farmer or a minister or a priest or a teacher. A leader recognises each and every person as a leader and empowers them to lead their own processes and duties with their own discipline and example.

Unfortunately, most people only claim to be humble and are respectful with people who have higher stature than them but not with people who are lower in the food chain. Well, that's not humility but sycophancy. Humility means equal respect for all be it a minister or a waiter or a janitor or a labourer or a sex worker. You practise humility and give equal respect to all and that is power because it wins the hearts of people who would go that extra mile to support you towards achieving your goal.

People also think vulnerability is weakness. That's not true. Vulnerability is power because it helps us to keep an open mind to other people's views and ideas and also helps us to create a culture of feedback where anyone can tell you that you are taking some wrong steps. This can save us from ruin and help us improve ourselves.

To conclude, the leaders of the future are those who live and understand this principle of humility and vulnerability because no human is infallible. Some fine examples of leaders are people like Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Bhagat Singh and in current times Warren Buffett, Justin Trudeau and David Cameron. Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi also got humbled and understood humility when the people gave him a landslide victory, and given his wisdom, he knows that his election victory was actually the people's victory because they chose to trust him for his capability and character to govern us for the next half decade. And because he has understood this, he connects with people through Mann Ki Baat and gets feedback from the common citizens who put him in office.