What do you think?

We must use the expertise of Ehsingh to make all types of CDs / event films. He can conjure up events of any year and splice it with the freshly conjured current events and make them look real without a sweat. I heard once he tried to get into bollywood unsuccessfully. Then, it seems, he decided to write real life scripts. He now says this is more interesting and rewarding than fiction. His CV in this arena is commendable.

Move over Broadway, Milky Way and all ways. We now have reality shows unfolding on news channels. Move over sakshis and vadhus…we now have real Sibals, Rudys, Tiwaris, Javadekars and a score of others playing out comedy on the small screen in real time. We just can’t guess for nuts what may happen in the next episode…we don’t even know when the next episode will be aired…it could take days, a day, hours or even only minutes. In some cases the next scene is telecast as ‘breaking news’ even before the current one is concluded. Ha! What suspense! What drama. We also have those mega suspense dramas like the ‘Bofors’ and mini mega hits like the ‘Tehelka’, for instance. These come packaged for National and regional viewership.

The other day eminent scientists and bigwigs were discussing the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project‎‎ on a popular news cannel. These guys were virtually shouting each other down. It was fun as it seemed nobody knew anything about what was to be discussed. Of course Arnabda didn’t mind that – you see It is commotion that brings in the TRPs; not the contents of the debate. This trend is an extension of what happens in our Parliament – those who shout the loudest will get more votes in the next elections… at least that is what we think our MPs think as they think democracy means elections and votes and nothing beyond. Governance, they think is the job of bureaucracy who let the Ms of P think what they want to think and perpetually make hay as the sun always shines for them! With so much of thinking going around what does a common man think? He can’t think because in this chaos he does not know what to think as he is unaware of himself. So he always lets others think. Others do not know that they are others and so they don’t think either. And fellow countrymen that is how in India nobody thinks; but only follows…seemingly without thinking.

Do pardon me if you think, you think and I need to do a rethink!

Is a leader born or made ?

That this Q about leadership is an enigma even now in the twenty-first century in itself tells us that the subject is beyond discussion – or in other words the subject could evoke endless ‘discussions’. Leadership exists in the animal world too. It is thus safe to presume that the traits for a leader have evolved with mankind itself. And yet after tens of thousands of years we are still trying to define a leader!!!

We were all in our Blue Patrol dress. As a pre dinner routine that evening some of us Keen Kumars were gathered around our Corps Commander.  Senior officers of the Indian Army were making small talk.  A colonel in a tight fitting patrol dress broached the subject of ceremonial dresses with all the accoutrements and their futility in the ‘modern’ times. The General looked at the colonel and then sweeping a glance at all of us gathered around asked - “How do I stand out in this crowd without my epaulettes and accoutrements?  If I do not wear them I will not be recognized as your Corps Commander and as your leader, whereas a Lalu Prasad Yadav will be recognized as a leader even in his vests!”

There are both ‘born’ leaders and ‘made’ leaders.  Every person comes into this world with certain traits. She modifies / improves upon these and acquires more traits from the environment in the process of growing up. A leader is essentially created by circumstance. The circumstance may throw up a leader and when it does, we say a leader is ‘born’!  Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King fall in this category. Alternately a potential leader is introduced to a circumstance and thus, a leader is ‘made’.  Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw, Admiral Ronnie Pereira, MS Dhoni and for that matter Major Riesman (Lee Marvin) in the movie The dirty dozen, are examples of leaders introduced to a circumstance.  A leader is a person who guides others towards a common goal. A common goal is created by the circumstance. There can’t be a leader without a circumstance. A leader then shows the way and guides the led towards the common goal. The success or failure of a leader is determined by her capability to use the by now ingrained traits in leading the group to achieve its goal. The bottom line is that he who succeeds is a good leader…’’what may have been’ is never part of any equation!!!!

There are volumes and more volumes written on leadership qualities, skills and traits. It is a subject taught in military academies and all B schools.  This is one subject that should to be removed from any academic dispensing – Abraham Lincoln, Robin Hood, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, MS Dhoni et al never attended any class on leadership. Any discussion on these traits / qualities will be repetitive, mundane and purposeless. 

One other point I want to make is that a successful manager or a boss need not necessarily be a leader of any quality.