TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2024
Samir Nazareth
As my partner and friends inhabit the corporate world, I am just a degree removed from it. However, I must confess that I have willingly put myself on professional social media platforms to keep updated on corporate life.
What is true for the natural world is true for the corporate world. The process of evolution has not ended. This biological Darwinian path to whatever is next for humankind has a parallel in the planet of business and industry. This evolution can be partly encapsulated in the new Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter”, “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together” in English. There is a constant effort, and even demand, to improve and be better – better lovers, partners, parents, spouses, colleagues, bosses, better looking. And within these there are myriad subsets, like communicating better, listening better, being emotionally present and so on.
Shakespeare and the Vedas delineated human life as one of various stages, seven for the former and four for the latter. Schooling and training came early in life. Young princes were trained in statecraft and weaponry to prepare them for their future roles as kings responsible for perpetuating their dynasty. The same was for the various trades that existed within a kingdom. What was once just a stage for preparing for adult life and responsibility, extended into one’s career through professional training courses to reflect corporate requirements, potential and professional advancement. Today it has become a lifelong tryst with oneself.
The advent of psychiatry and psychology opened a window to the underlying causes of behaviours and ways to overcome them. These behaviours were perceived as social and professional impediments, and treating them was viewed as key to normality and success. The influence of outside stimuli, collaterals of modern life, which included evolving morality, rethinking of social and gendered roles, studies on the power of the mind led to new verticals such as child psychology, sports psychology, social psychology and various forms of counselling. It also led to various psychological tests for children and adults, these delved into personality to glean things like career options, personality types, strengths and so on. Parallelly, focus on the individual led to a specialisation that focused on the Professional.
Leadership is a subset of this specialisation on the Professional. Leadership is not new, mythology, poems and history have pages dedicated to leadership. If one looks at the natural world, animals living in groups have a leader whose position is threatened from time to time and eventually the role is taken over by a younger stronger member of the species. However, in the human world the idea of leadership has undergone changes. These changes reflect changing notions of effectiveness and social mores.
Unsurprisingly, I was accosted with something called ‘Servant Leader’. I know this is a brilliant example of dichotomous and oxymoron. But this is what is being served and lapped up in the professional world. Then there is a concept of ‘Leadership Brand’ which was explained in the Harvard Business Review. I fear that explaining these terms here will only spread the virus. Instead, here is a question ‘where did we learn the first ideas of leadership?’.
As children, one learnt about leadership through interactions within the family - between parent and child, between parent and parent, and finally between siblings. Classrooms and playgrounds were other areas where children learnt and also practiced leadership. Then as adults, leadership skills are practiced in various forms of relationships. One also learns other things like respect, kindness, empathy, humility, responsibility, accountability, trust and so on from an early age. Plus, one has the counsel of those closest to us with more experience.
These basic principles of what makes us humans are also the foundation of leadership. If these haven’t changed then why the mercurial definitions?
I recently came across the term JEDI. This is an acronym for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. JEDI finds mention in everything from hiring processes to climate change negotiations. Can there be JEDI without empathy and respect? The focus, use and promotion of these acronyms that are supposedly developed to make us better, obfuscates and diverts our attention from what we have cultivated and learned since birth - things that make us part of a family and society.
Possibly, proponents of these new age terms are missing the forest for the trees. In the desire to be more effective, to make multi-tasking fruitful, and to meet what seem to be new standards there is a trend to adopt performance enhancing jargon. Their effectiveness can be appreciated by the frequency of it changing and the numbers who can afford to learn and practice them.
Where does the desire to ‘live our best lives’, ‘thrive’, ‘be the best version of ourselves’ come from? Why is there disaffection and where is it coming from? Why do adults have to learn that they should be grateful and learn gratefulness.
Could the lack of personal time coupled with fear and ambition create an ecosystem that caters to physical and cognitive trimmings that supposedly embellish our personal and professional lives. Are these old wine in new bottles or are they performance enhancing placebos. It would not be wrong to say that psychology has been coopted into becoming an input for a factory that churns out new-fangled ideas of what is basic to us as humans, and members of families and society.
The Babylonisation of basic human qualities makes us insecure, forces us to scurry to find solutions for phantom problems.
Yes, humans should strive to be better as individuals, as partners, colleagues etc. But does it require the wheel to be reinvented? There is over three millennia of philosophical thought that has been distilled into religion, children’s stories, grandmother's tales, aphorisms and let’s not forget experiential learnings of life. Unfortunately, with age, it is assumed one outgrows these universal fundamentals and they become irrelevant. It’s time we appreciated that nothing is further than the truth.
(Samir Nazareth is an author and writes on socio-economic and environmental issues)
