The Hindu Business Line : Leadership development

With William Wordsworth’s famous line, ‘The child is the father of the man,’ begins a chapter in Micha Popper’s ‘Leaders Who Transform Society’ ( www.landmarkonthenet.com ). “Leadership does not develop in infancy, but that is when the psychological foundations are laid for further development,” says the author, citing many examples, including one about Gandhiji.

“When Gandhi was eleven years old, a British school inspector came to his school to test the level of teaching. For this purpose, he asked the students to spell five words that he dictated to them in English,” begins the story.

“No one made a mistake except Gandhi. The regular class teacher, who was walking around and looking at what the students had written, noticed the mistakes and urged Gandhi to copy from his neighbour. Gandhi did not do this. Later the teacher spoke scathingly of his stupidity and of the fact that he had lowered the results of the class, but Gandhi thought that he had done the right thing.”

According to Popper, “This little story casts light on some important aspects of Gandhi’s personality, which would be revealed when he eventually became a transformational leader.”

The first aspect he highlights is self-confidence in order not to go with the stream. “Gandhi remained true to himself, even at the cost of failure and mockery.” Second, his principled attitude towards people; “Gandhi, in a retrospective analysis, remarked that the incident did not affect the respect that he continued to feel for that teacher. ‘I was,’ he said, ‘by nature blind to people’s mistakes.’”

From the leaves of Gandhi’s life in South Africa as a lawyer, Popper narrates an incident. “He represented a rich man who was suing a debtor who owed him a huge sum. It was a clear case in legal terms and would have completely ruined the debtor’s business. Despite the assured legal success, Gandhi persuaded his client to settle the debt in payments in order not to ruin his rival.”

Only in this way could Gandhi find his duty as an attorney, explains Popper. “I learned the true mission of the law, I learned to see the good sides of human nature and penetrate into the hearts of people,” Gandhi would write in his diary. “Not only did I not lose anything, I remained true to my soul.”
Another of the early cases that Gandhi took up in South Africa was that of an Indian labourer who had been beaten by his employer and had two of his teeth broken. “Gandhi sued the employer, but also settled with him that the worker would switch to a new employer,” writes Popper. “He acquired a reputation as someone who was not vengeful but sought the benefit of all sides without distorting the truth.”
This professional reputation, along with his image as an honest and spiritual person, made him a figure that the Indians in South Africa began to see as a moral authority, observes Popper. “When he returned to India after 21 years in South Africa, his path as national leader was open, but beyond that, his self efficacy as a leader was firmly set.”
Inspiring tales.

D. MURALI
http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

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