Email: rgopal@themindworks.me
(*The writer is a best-selling author and corporate advisor. His latest book is titled “Wisdom for startups from grownups”. He was Director of Tata Sons and Vice Chairman of Hindustan Unilever).
If only India had a leader with gravitas who would say, “Let us temporarily bury our political differences and focus on the wellbeing of our voters. Let us act like the rainbow nation that we are.” This can be a credible leader from any party.
I love what scientist-writer, Carlo Rovelli, wrote last year about the pandemic, “In times of difficulty, it becomes clear that collaborating is better than competing. My secret hope is that this will be our conclusion from this present crisis.” Although pink papers should be rational and analytical, this piece has a tinge of emotion.
Although I am a devout Hindu, it stays in my private domain. Like many, I too despair for the poor and have an irrational prejudice about people who acquire quick wealth. I am attracted to the integral humanism ideas of Jacques Maritain and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. I have tried to be a good citizen of our nation.
At this stage of my life, I wonder about our nation and whether, as practiced in India, politics is failing citizens. Covid does not recognize BJP, TMC or Congress. Too many leaders have been behaving irresponsibly at a crucial time. I wish we had a Gandhi or Mandela, a leader with gravitas, who said, “Let us temporarily bury our political differences and focus as per our national tradition on wellbeing.” Vasudeiva kutumbakam.
If you were President of America, you would surely like to be remembered as an Abraham Lincoln or FD Roosevelt, rather than a Richard Nixon or Donald Trump. Donald Trump and his acolytes have long used superlatives about him. Yet, the alternative view is that “he was grossly derelict, unable or unwilling to marshal the requisite resources to save lives while encouraging behavior that spread the disease.” (Prof Tim Naftali, The Atlantic, 19th Jan 2021).
The leader gets sole blame for failure, just as he gets sole credit for success—both are unfair, but both are reality. Forgettable leaders grab credit and shift blame. However, it is not the mistake that defines the leader, but it is what happens after the mistake. Denial of a mistake is a terribly diminishing action. The fact that many leaders rarely admit to their mistakes is no excuse for not doing so. As a visible example to her constituency, every shirking leader sets a bad example for future leaders. Failure to accept responsibility is a failure to lead.
In 1979, ISRO chairman, Satish Dhawan, accepted responsibility for failure of the first SLV-3 rocket launch. At the success of the next launch, he stayed in the background and passed on the credit.
In 2016, the America’s Cup World Series regatta was held in Oman. Sir Ben Ainslie, the most successful Olympic sailor in history, captained a potential winning team, sponsored by Tata-owned Land Rover. Ainslie misjudged the winds in the first two of the three heats, so he had to allow other boats to pass him. Ainslie humbly accepted the misjudgment and implored his team to help win the third heat—which they did.
Robert Rubin was feted as a hugely successful Treasury Secretary of America during the 1990s. He loosened controls on the financial industry during his tenure. The financial bust followed, with criticism of the loosening of controls. By 2008, as a senior advisor of Citigroup, he said to Wall Street Journal, “Nobody was prepared for this…with the facts that the board knew then, maybe we should have acted differently…. there is an enormous amount that needs to be learned.”
I once heard a beleaguered CEO demand of his communications team, “Only negative stories are appearing. Get out positive stories about our successes please.” The result of the team’s efforts was an additional disaster. Although the boss had got seven out of ten things right, common people were not interested beyond how the system would fix three missed pain points.
The price of greatness is responsibility. History tells us the generic four lessons about taking responsibility:
- Be aware that things are not always as they seem.
- Accept that admitting failure is not a weakness,
- Take actions that will make a difference.
- Actively reach out and build trust.
Conversely, the four missteps while handling failure are:
- Avoid underplaying problems by comparing with those with bigger problems.
- Do not allow your supporters to shift the blame.
- Do not tell misleading half-truths or, worse still, lies.
- Do not pass the blame to others.
As a septuagenarian, I still hope that national leaders, aided by the media, will promote the idea of a collaborative approach to handling our current crisis.
