The Hindu Business Line : Commanding, not demanding, respect

DECADES after their demise, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Kamaraj and Rajaji continue to inspire millions of Indians. And not without reason.

For, these leaders were the epitome of values, high ideals and absolute integrity. They worked, for the most part, in perfect harmony and were able to enter the minds of ordinary Indians — the collective consciousness of an entire nation.

Simply said, they were able to command, and not demand, respect. They were able to mobilise the entire energy, time and resources at their command to develop a vision of modern India that would keep pace with scientific and technological progress throughout the world.

It is worthwhile remembering that several giant public sector projects — that actually laid the foundation of India's industrial revolution — were launched and successfully implemented due to the foresightedness and vision of these great leaders and those whom they inspired.

Compare the present situation, and one wonders what went wrong. There are compromises that one keeps on making to earn a living. Emergence of respectable leaders — whose ways of living and doing things can be emulated — is becoming so rare that one wonders whether it will ever happen, leading to a leadership crisis of gigantic proportions.

Do we still have hope? Do we still have some leaders whose personalities match, at least to some extent, the qualities of great leaders?

The answer is yes. Mr R. Sreedharan, the chief architect of Konkan Railways and the Delhi Metro, stands out as an outstanding leader who motivated hundreds of employees to execute huge and complex projects. Dr Kurien, of Amul fame, brought about a White Revolution, touching and changing the lives of millions of farmers for the better. Mr V. Krishnamurthy is respected for his contribution to Indian management, having turned around BHEL, SAIL and Maruti Udyog.

Mr Narayanamurthy of Infosys Technologies and Mr Azim Premji of Wipro stand out as leaders of impeachable integrity and of great vision.

Inasmuch as the boom in the IT and IT-enabled service sectors literally drives the economy, these leaders are respected and are looked upon as role models for thousands of youngsters.

The Tatas are considered a model to emulate for corporate governance. HR experts have documented the great emphasis that the Tata group gives to human resources development.

Their involvement in community service is often cited as an outstanding model of social responsibility. Simply doing the right thing is one way of building respect.

Having a "service-before-self" philosophy in real life, does help in sending the right message to subordinates.

A good leader also never lets down his subordinates, even if they commit big mistakes at work.

In fact, the best leaders take decisive action only when integrity is at stake. Leadership is a skill that can be developed.

However, for doing this, one has to necessarily stress on values. The trick is to create situations where commanding respect becomes possible.

This is a task for both managers and managements, but more for the latter.

A. B. Sivakumar

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