May 25, 2019 |Courtesy: Rediff.com |
The answer has two
components: As a leader with a vision who can carry the masses and his ability
to realise his vision through his decision-making and executive skills, says
Colonel R Hariharan.
Prime Minister Narendra
Damodardas Modi led from the front to win an unprecedented second term in the
2019 general election.
He has shown he is a hands-on leader, who does
not hesitate to publicise his successes, rather than wasting time on explaining
his failures.
The 2019 election results clearly show that for
the Opposition parties Modi continues to remain 'a riddle, wrapped in a mystery,
inside an enigma' to borrow a quote from Winston Churchill.
If the Opposition leaders want to survive the
Modi headwind, they have to find answer to the question, what makes Modi tick?
This is perhaps the reason for their failure to
evolve a proactive and coherent strategy to take on the Modi phenomenon.
The Opposition's reactive
strategy focused on Modi's actions, which are his strength, than gut issues.
In terms of brand-building strategy, the
Opposition went all wrong. By painting him as an ogre the Opposition ended up
reinforcing Modi's image as an invincible leader.
Repeated slanging of Modi with meaningless
slogans like 'Chowkidar chor
hai', only showed the Opposition's paucity of strategic ideas to
take on the BJP leader on his vulnerabilities.
Understanding Modi is difficult because some of his actions
defy logic and conventional wisdom. But that is exactly what Modi did, when he
sprang a surprise on the nation of 1.3 billion people in a televised speech. He
told them their high value currencies would become useless unless they account
for it through a bank.
What made him take this critical decision without going
through the conventional process of decision making?
Only a leader with goal clarity, self-confidence, courage of
conviction and trust in his team, takes a risky decision despite knowing it
might damage his reputation as an effective leader. Such leaders are known for
their out of the box solutions.
Was Modi's action driven by courage or foolhardiness? The
jury may be still out on demonetisation, but for most of the voters it did not
matter because they trusted him. The debate is likely to go on forever because
out of the box decisions often defy conventional reasoning.
That is why politicians are generally reluctant to think out
of the box. They prefer more pedestrian tried and trusted methods. Apparently,
Modi's strength is he is not a conventional politician.
From a managerial perspective, Modi's leadership style can
be analysed using a wide variety of tools used by management pundits. But
political leadership does not lend itself to easy classification of styles
expounded in management tomes.
Successful politicians are situational leaders, assuming
different styles to suit the dynamics of an operational environment. How they
manage it often defines their political longevity and public popularity.
In Modi's case, it was a combination of leadership charisma
and exceptional decision-making and executive skills that enabled him to
repackage and expand upon many of the well-conceived, but ill-managed, social
welfare schemes of earlier governments.
What makes Modi tick? The answer has two components: As a
leader with a vision who can carry the masses and his ability to realise his
vision through his decision-making and executive skills. That makes him not
only a PM, but a chief executive as well.
This is the reason Modi's style of closely monitoring of
actions makes some of the bureaucrats uncomfortable as they are accustomed to
the traditional 'file crawl'.
Modi's rise from the backwoods of Gujarat to the hallowed
power centres of Lutyens New Delhi is not dissimilar to that of Benjamin
Disraeli.
Disraeli, born in a Sephardic Jewish family of Italian
mercantile background, rose to become prime minister of Great Britain twice in
the 19th century. He was instrumental in taking many momentous decisions to
take advantage of the decay of the Ottoman empire and the purchase of a major
interest in the Suez Canal company.
Modi's rise seems to be based upon Disraeli's three pillars
of learning: Seeing much, suffering much and studying much.
The prime minister's conduct as a national leader also
reflects Disraeli's pithy observation: 'The secret of success is to be ready
when your opportunity comes.'
Modi also exemplifies some of Disraeli's other leadership
dictums. These include 'Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke' and 'Never
complain and never explain.'
Modi is undoubtedly a charismatic leader, who can hold the
audience spellbound with his simple but effective public speaking skills.
How much does charisma help Modi as a leader?
The well-known management guru Peter Drucker in a Harvard
Business Review article in 2004 explained that effective executive does not
need to be a charismatic leader. So the PM to be effective needs more than charisma.
Drucker, from his rich experience in 65 years of consulting,
says some of the most effective chief executives varied in their personalities,
attitudes, values, strengths, and weaknesses. They ranged from 'extroverted to
nearly reclusive, from easy going to controlling, from generous to
parsimonious'.
The management guru identified eight practices that made
them effective. They asked two questions: What needs to be done. and what is
right for the enterprise. These gave them the knowledge they needed.
They developed action plans and took responsibility for
decisions and communicating the decisions to translate the knowledge into
action. They ensured accountability and responsibility by focusing on
opportunities rather than problems and emphasising 'we' rather than 'I'.
In the run-up to the 2014 election, it was Modi's charisma
that attracted thousands of ordinary people who paid to hear his talks
delivered with exceptional public speaking skills. They needed a narrative of
action to add value to their lives.
But in the 2019 general election, even the adulatory public
appear to have judged Modi on his performance rather than his oratorical
skills. So the
massive popular vote is probably a validation of Modi not
only as a leader plus doer.
The
writer, a retired military intelligence analyst, served as the Executive
Director of the Madras Management Association. He has been corporate trainer
for more than a decade. E-mail: haridirect@gmail.com Website: https://col.hariharan.info
