On leadership

When we talk of leadership, we often tend to define it within a specific sphere – usually that of work. Managers operate from a position of authority within a hierarchy and are usually ineffective without the position. But leadership is a behaviour, not a position.

Good leaders are effective in all spheres – in the home and family, in the neighbourhood and community, in the enterprise and outside, in the nation and the world. They are the change that they want to see.

They possess the vital 3Ps, 5Es, 4Cs and 2As – they operate with a clear sense of Purpose that they articulate, they are Passionate and Principled.

They have high Energy as well as the ability to Energise; they have domain Edge and the ability to Execute, and importantly they have a high level of Empathy.

They possess Character, they are Curious, Creative and Confident. They have the ability to Articulate and Amplify what is important.

Purpose is at the heart of leadership. Our purpose defines who we are and what we do with our life.

Thinkers over the years have proposed various motives for human purpose. Freud believed in the “will to pleasure”, while Adler believed in the “will to power” as the force that drives human actions.

But Viktor Fankl believed that the “will to meaning” provides the central purpose to human life; this resonates powerfully with me.

Finding and providing meaning is the central task of leadership. And this starts with voyaging within, for only when the leader finds meaning in her life can she connect with others and their meaning.

As the Tao Te Ching states:

Knowing others is wisdom;

Knowing the self is enlightenment.

Mastering others requires force;

Mastering the self needs strength.

Great leaders are ‘self-referral’ rather ‘object referral’ – they define themselves on who they are and what they do rather than what they have or have built.

There are many critical questions that leaders ask themselves:

Who am I? Why do I exist? (My purpose)

What is my aspiration, what do I want to be? (My vision)

What will I do with my life, what value will I deliver? (My value)

What do I believe in and how will I behave? (My values)

How will I make a difference? (My meaning)

To quote Steve Jobs: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. I have always wished that for myself. And now, I wish that for you.”

Optimism, openness to possibilities and self-confidence are all qualities of a great leader, as is the ability to bring out the best in people.

Leaders listen; leadership can be defined as the ability to allow others to grow in your listening

The most common characteristic of good, memorable leaders is that they create the conditions for people to be encouraged, challenged, and supported, to become stronger and more capable as they do their work. The descriptions are always the same: “The leader thought about me and trusted me (just as I trusted him or her). He or she believed that I was capable and supported and encouraged me to stretch and excel; the leader was not focused on making himself or herself look good.”

Evolved leaders know what Viktor Frankl articulated so well - that "success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended consequence of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.”

Our country, and our world, is in urgent need of evolved leaders to find solutions to the many vital problems – that of inequality, of poverty and hunger, of war and hatred, of unsustainable lifestyles. As Gandhiji had pointed out decades ago, "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed".

If each of us were to follow typical western lifestyles, we will need 6 earths, and we have but one. Our modern production and consumption methods are not sustainable and we must find and adopt ways of living and growing that will be.

Gandhiji asked us to “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

I would like to share the story of one such extraordinary human who exemplifies the will to meaning and the very best of humanity as well as evolved leadership.

When we retire, most of us expect, and look forward to, a life of leisure. But in 1976, when a 58-year-old eye surgeon retired after decades of dedicated work in government hospitals in Tamil Nadu, he set out with a purpose to “eradicate needless blindness” and provide sight to as many people as possible, irrespective of their ability to pay.

This remarkable surgeon, Dr Govindappa Venkataswamy, believed that of the 12 million blind in India, close to 10 million could easily be treated, as cataract, which was the major reason, could be set right by a simple operation. But for that, he needed a hospital.

He did not have the money to build one and so set up one in his rented house at Theni near Madurai in Tamilnadu. It had just 11 beds and was always full. He knew this was not enough to tackle the challenge and persuaded his family to pawn the family jewellery to garner funds. This was the beginning of The Aravind Eye Care System, which is the largest and most productive eye care facility in the world.

From April 2007 to March 2008, about 2.4 million persons have received outpatient eye care and over 285,000 have undergone eye surgeries at the Aravind Eye Hospitals at Madurai, Theni, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore and Puducherry.

The hospitals serve the rich, who pay for the modern cataract surgery and the poor, who are treated free. The sales, advertising and promotion of Aravind focus on attracting free rather than paying patients. For example, the sales force has annual targets for the number of free patients admitted; weekly sales meetings monitor achievement of these targets. The sales teams scour the countryside looking for poor patients and transport them to the hospital at no cost.

By focusing on eye care and routinizing procedures, Aravind’s surgeons are so productive that this non-profit has a gross margin of 50% despite the fact that more than 65% of the patients served do not pay. Unlike most non-profits around the world, it does not depend on donations and attempts to maximize the number of free patients served.

Dr V built a sustainable model using simple business strategies - he increased volumes, built efficiencies and reduced costs, making every employee realize that every rupee saved helps in treating more patients.

His achievements are all the more remarkable when you learn that he had to retire in 1948 from the Indian Army Medical Corps after developing severe rheumatoid arthritis – a disease that left his fingers crippled and changed the course of his life. Despite his condition he returned to medical school and earned a Diploma and Masters degree in ophthalmology. With hard work and determination, Dr. V. trained himself to hold a scalpel and to perform cataract surgery. In time, he personally performed over one hundred thousand successful eye surgeries.

Guided by a philosophy that taught the spirituality of service, driven by compassion far beyond the ordinary and backed by the support and assistance of those who believed in his vision, Dr. V. set in motion a crusade against blindness. His work and its remarkable results have gained worldwide recognition, transforming millions of people, mostly poor.

Successful human initiatives, like Dr V’s have in common such ingredients as a dream, belief, passion, purpose and action. Especially, sustainable action.

I would like to end with these words of Dr. V:

“Intelligence and capability are not enough. There must be the joy of doing something beautiful."