When around the turn of the last millennium the historians were asked to rank their preferences for the greatest leaders of the 20th century by editors of several leading global publications one person who was most widely named Mohandas K Gandhi according to the experts. Interestingly, his leadership philosophy has almost invariably been characterised as an ‘idealistic’ and impractical one. But we need to remember that by far Gandhi was one of the greatest mass leaders of the world who is admired globally even today, almost seven decades after his death. In fact, if a neutral analysis is made it would suggest that Gandhi had advocated some very practical leadership actions and behaviours that can be used effectively even today in any sphere of action be it political, business or organisational.
Termed variously as ‘values-based leadership’ or ethical leadership, Gandhi’s style appears to be the style that’s universally admired. The crux of his approach was based on love and wisdom. love is consideration for others and rooted in empathy while wisdom is the ability to see the right perspective and make right choices in the face of uncertainties and conflicts. William James’s quote is worth citing — “the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook’’. Usually wisdom is supposed to be the ability to know which side of the bread is buttered, but it requires greater wisdom to say no to that buttered side.
An often used phrase in management jargon is “To wink it over” that means that sometimes it makes sense to look over the other side. Gandhi’s leadership was embedded in his ability to exercise the right choices at right times about when to ignore, when to assert and when to negotiate. To use popular US President JF Kennedy’s words - “Gandhi never negotiated out of fear, but never feared to negotiate”.
While defining values based leadership may not be easy it definitely can be understood by observing the leadership approaches of those individuals whose behaviour was accepted by most people as ethical and effective. Examples from politics can be Sardar Patel or lal Bahadur Shastri while from the business world it can be GD Birla or Ramkrishna Bajaj. While it may come as a surprise to the many corporate executives of the modern day businesses that practicality and morality could be blended harmoniously in the realpolitik of government and diplomacy or even in the competitive, profit-oriented corporate world in which they themselves work, the fact is that it is possible.
For the great majority of executives the belief is that it was Machiavelli and not Gandhi, who offered the most useful philosophy of leadership. Machiavelli who advocated that the ‘princes’ should ‘learn how not to be good’ because ‘a man who wishes to be good in everything will come to grief in this world full of so many who are not good’.
Machiavelli made a case for realism over idealism suggesting that leaders must learn to manipulate their followers that is ‘be able by astuteness to confuse men’s brains’. For many, Gandhi’s leadership behaviour is ‘out of sync’ with the realities of our modern, high-tech, fast world. But it must be remembered that followers expect their leaders to be above board and it pays to be good. Understanding Gandhi of course is not easy. let’s try as we march past yet another January 30, the day Gandhi was assassinated.
The writer is a professor, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (Jharkhand). He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.comThe writer teaches management at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (Jharkhand).
He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com
