Leading with empathy, humility and dialogue

To an extent, leaders do sell dreams to their followers but that should not become a litany of unfulfilled promises

In uncertain times, leaders require deeper conversations and empathetic listening — three times more than speech-making.
 
According to Persian poet, Rumi, fear is the non-acceptance of uncertain­ty and fear is the gateway to adventure.
 
Uncertainty demands that leaders de­volve power and they unleash mecha­ni­sms for consultation and empowerment. Enquire about the secret sauce of Ra­je­ndra Bhatt (DM, Bhilwara) or K K Shailaja (Kerala Health Minister), two understated heroes of the Covid-19 crisis.
 

The 1918 pandemic is erroneously termed “Spanish flu” because the Spanish media highlighted the problem when media elsewhere faced wartime restrictions. Dan Reiter and Allan Stam have written a persuasive article in Foreign Affairs that in over 170 years (1816-1987), democracies won three quarters of their wars, while non-democracies won less than half of their wars. Some evidence that democracy, free media and devolution do work.

 
About the coronavirus, Europe began with a blame game among nations but a German court’s challenge to the EU’s Court of Justice has created a constitutional crisis. Healthy democracies (Taiwan and South Korea) as well as women-led nations (Germany, New Zealand, Finland) appear to have fared better than machismo dictatorships (Iran, Russia and China). The reader may consider how to position nations with centralising leaders — America, Britain, Brazil. Also figure out where Bharat belongs.
 
A desirable trait for strongmen is to engage in real conversations and genuine listening — recommended dosage of three times empathetic listening versus speech-making. I share two lessons for any leadership team.

 

• Listen empathetically to people who have less power than the leaders — it far outweighs leadership blah.

 

• Don’t overpromise, act SMART or offer specific-measurable-achievable-relevant-time bound action proposals.

 
Top teams spend their life climbing up the grease pole but they must get off their perch periodically. I recall Hi­ndustan Unilever Limited (HUL) cha­irmen exemplarily interacting with em­ployees and business associates at the front line; folklore abounds among HUL alumni about chairmen’s field visits, when they would listen and seek out field perceptions of problems and solutions. Such meetings, being outside the cloistered offices, leaders devote, and are seen to devote, full attention to the front line — the front line feels heard and empathised with. Public leaders do so by meeting common folks. Recall how Ms Gandhi, who was out of power, was the first politician to visit Belchhi, Bihar, to meet the victims of horrendous atrocities against Dalits in 1977. 

 
Too often, top teams are surrounded by committed acolytes rather than constructive dissenters. Active empathy facilitates deep connections and meaningful collaboration. Empathy is a skill that is best nurtured by keeping one’s agenda aside and seeking to understand the world from the other’s perspective. In uncertain times, empathy greatly helps institutions to survive and thrive. Recall the hugely empathetic and hu­mane leadership at Tata Steel and Indian Hotels (Taj) during the mayhem following a Jamshedpur fire (1989) and the terrorist attack (2008). Both were exemplary for empathy and humility. In 1964, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri insisted with Dr Kurien that he would stay overnight as a house guest of a Gujarat farmer to observe how the Amul success was being achieved — and, incognito, at that.

 
Leaders come through as endearingly transparent and even vulnerable in such empathetic contexts, greatly augmenting their connect with people.
 
To some extent, leaders do sell dreams to their followers but this should not become a litany of unfulfilled promises. Fictions motivate people to cooperate through lulling narrations of magical stories, for example, Pharaohs are real gods, not mere divine representatives or Communism creates paradise. Indian citizens have enthusiastically believed in the fables they heard but, from their perspective, they await to see the benefits — like correcting all the errors of the past in 10 years, unearthing black mo­ney through scrapping currency notes, electricity nirvana through a never-before UDAY scheme, conquering Covid in fewer days than the Pandavas took to win the Mahabharata war, and becoming global exemplars on how to respond to Covid. In contrast and as a positive example, think about the delivery of results of Swachha Bharat Abhiyan or cooking gas to poor sections. What is important is the results that the follower is led to expect rather than the promise of the leaders.

 
Leaders need to be realistic about actions, which should be SMART — specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-targeted. SMART approach requires collaboration, openness and reaching out, otherwise you get outcomes like the current plight of informal workers (not migrants).
 
Among any leadership team’s multiple tasks during crises, empathy, humility and dialogue count among the most endearing.
 
The writer is an author and corporate advisor. He is a distinguished professor of IIT Kharagpur. He was a director of Tata Sons and a vice-chairman of Hindustan Unilever

Email: rgopal@themindworks.me