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© 2012 Sanjeev Sabhlok's revolutionary blog
I'm extracting key qualities of a king below, from Chanakya's Arthashastra. These are qualities we'd like to see in our elected representatives.
THE KING
[An ideal king is one who has the highest qualities of leadership, intellect, energy and personal attributes.]The qualities of leadership (which attract followers) are: birth in a noble family, good fortune, intellect and prowess, association with elders, being righteous, truthful, resolute, enthusiastic and disciplined, not breaking his promises, showing gratitude [to those who help him], having lofty aims, not being dilatory, being stronger than neighbouring kings and having ministers of high quality.
The qualities of intellect are: desire to learn, listening [to others], grasping, retaining, understanding thoroughly and reflecting on knowledge, rejecting false views and adhering to the true ones.
An energetic king is one who is valorous, determined, quick and dexterous.
As regards personal attributes, an ideal king should be eloquent, bold and endowed with a sharp intellect, a strong memory and a keen mind. He should be amenable to guidance.
He should be well trained in all the arts and be able to lead the army.
He should be just in rewarding and punishing. He should have the foresight to avail himself of the opportunities (by choosing) the right time, place and type of action.
He should know how to govern in normal times and in times of crisis. He should know when to fight and when to make peace, when to lie in wait, when to observe treaties and when to strike at an enemy’s weakness. He should preserve his dignity at all times and not laugh in an undignified manner. He should be sweet in speech, look straight at people and avoid frowning. He should eschew passion, anger, greed, obstinacy, fickleness and backbiting. He should conduct himself in accordance with the advice of elders. {6.1.2-6}
COUNCILLORS AND MINISTERS
A councillor or minister of the highest rank should be a native of the state, born in a high family and controllable [by the king]. He should have been trained in all the arts and have logical ability to foresee things. He should be intelligent, persevering, dexterous, eloquent, energetic, bold, brave, able to endure adversities and firm in loyalty. He should neither be haughty nor fickle. He should be amicable and not excite hatred or enmity in others. 3 {1.9.1}
[The king should appoint advisers in different grades of the hierarchy, depending on how many of the qualities described above they possess].
Those who have all the qualities are to be appointed to the highest grade (as Councillors), those who lack a quarter to the middle grades and those who lack a half to the lowest grades. {1.9.2}Also:
Also:
THE ROLE OF THE KING IN PROTECTING AND PROMOTING WELFARE
Since the king is synonymous with the Kautilyan state, we first note the kind of attitude and behaviour that Kautilya recommends for him. The verse used as the epigraph to this book, ‘In the happiness of his subjects lies his own happiness…’ summarizes it. A king should be well trained (III.i) and practise self-control (III.ii). An ideal king is one who has the highest qualities of leadership, intellect, energy and personal attributes {6.1.2-6} and behaves like a sage monarch, a rajarishi.
Among other things, a rajarishi is one ‘who is ever active in promoting the yogakshema of the people and who endears himself to his people by enriching them and doing good to them’ {1.7.1}. The word, yogakshema, is a compound made up of yoga, the successful accomplishment of an objective and kshema, its peaceful enjoyment. Thus, peaceful enjoyment of prosperity, i.e. the welfare of the people, is given as much importance as knowledge, self-control and observance of dharma.
A king should not only obey his own rajadharma but also ensure that his subjects obeyed their respective dharma. For, ‘when adharma overwhelms dharma, the king himself will be destroyed’ {3.16.42}. Hence, a wicked prince, who hates dharma and is full of evil, should not be installed on the throne, even if he is an only son {1.17.51}. In fact, Kautilya prefers an ignorant king who had not been taught dharma to a wicked king who, in spite of his learning, deviates from it {8.2.12}.
The king’s own dharma is to be just, impartial and lenient in protecting his people {8.2.12; 3.10.46; 1.19.33,34; 3.1.41; 3.20.24}. The king’s attitude to his people should be like that of a father towards his children, particularly when any danger threatened the population {4.3.43}.
He should treat leniently, like a father, those in new settlements whose tax exemptions had ceased to be effective {2.1.18}. Discontented and impoverished people might be provoked to revolt; they may then kill their king or go over to the enemy {7.5.27; 1.19.28}.
The king should not tax the people unjustly because ‘that will make the people angry and spoil the very sources of revenue’ {5.2.70}.
Those aware of BFN know that I recommend Jim Collins's leadership theory. An article shows that there is 100 per cent agreement between Chanakya and Jim Collins. In a sense, therefore this is the "kunji" of leadership. But, of course, Chanakya said MUCH more. I will distill his views separately, since I believe Chanakya's wisdom must form the basis of any leadership development program for India.
Vision
Modern-day management begins with a leadership team committed to the organization’s core values, purpose, mission, and vision. The same was true 2,400 years ago when Chanakya proceeded to help build an empire. He put vision, mission, and motivation ahead of everything else.
He then identified the need to focus on leadership requirements, organizational strategies, and human dimensions.
Values
According to Chanakya, the essence of leadership lies in justice and ethics. According to Collins, it lies in Level 5 leadership where leaders channel their energies away from their own egos and focus on the good of their organizations. Both exhort leaders to concern themselves less with power, rewards, and recognition and more on serving the needs of the people they lead.
Qualities of character and temperament
Chanakya placed great emphasis on human resource development. He identified the basic non-technical qualities required for every effective executive: character, ability to concentrate, ability to think, ability to communicate, and ability to observe. He insisted that the king surround himself with people who possess these skills. Similarly, Collins emphasizes having the “right people on the bus” as the top priority for any executive. He summarizes the non-technical qualities required for leadership as attitude, knowledge, and skill.
The similarities between Chanakya and Collins continue in four key areas:
Humility
Chanakya saw self-discipline, integrity, courage, decisiveness, sensitivity towards others, humility, and selflessness in great leaders. He said that great leaders are sensitive to the needs, feelings, and motivation of the people they lead. Today, we call this servant leadership. “Intense will and humility are the most important characteristics of leaders in the 21st century,” writes Collins; “[Level 5 leaders] strive to “build enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.” He says that until today’s leaders make the transition to develop intense will and humility, their ethic deficiencies will negatively affect the performance and sustainability of their organizations.Planning
Chanakya stressed the need for planning, saying that a failure to plan is a plan to fail. He also said that people should be firm about the goal but flexible with the process of achieving it. Likewise, Collins claims organizations are in desperate need of greater discipline: disciplined planning, disciplined people, disciplined governance, and disciplined allocation of resources. “Preserve the core, but stimulate progress,” he writes.Knowledge
Chanakya taught that knowledge is important and cumulative, and that small differences in ability can lead to enormous differences in results. Therefore, he encouraged people to focus on acquiring knowledge in their pursuit of superior results. Similarly, Collins claims the barrier to growth is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge. Level 5 leaders have the humility to admit what they don’t know, and they do something about it. Recognizing the need for and diligently pursuing knowledge is supreme.Results & Success
Chanakya says that success is no accident; it results from well thought actions aligned with focused vision. To sustain success, he says, organizations must implement a reliable system to collect real feedback and put corrective actions into place. Likewise, Collins writes that success comes through focus on the “Hedgehog Concept”, the intersection of each organization’s unique passion, best-in-the-world ability, and economic engine. Organizations that know their Hedgehog and operate within it are far more successful than those that don’t.
Came across this:
http://flipflashpages.uniflip.com/3/23175/133070/pub/document.pdf
- in which the founding Trustee (and Secretary of FTI), Mr Kandpal also features.
Three points caught my attention, and are worth noting – very carefully:
Good leaders get people to believe in them.
Great leaders inspire people to believe in themselves.
Good leaders say ― Watch what I can do.
Great leaders say ― Let me show you what you can do.
Good leaders catch fish for others so they can eat today.
Great leaders teach people how to fish so they can eat for a lifetime.
I came across a lovely article: Talent Isn’t Everything: Persistence Is.
Just one short extract:
“You need to work on your craft, Therese,” a very wise writing mentor told me when he took me under his wing. “And this is how you do it….”
He instructed me to read books on style, take classes, and analyze the technique of writers I respected.
He didn’t sit back in his chair and make fun of me like the arrogant professor I had, like a former boss of mine did, or like a self-absorbed judge does. That’s not helpful at all.
I know I'm a very ordinary writer of the English language (and a miserable writer in Hindi – although I won an across-Hyderabad essay competition in Hindi in high school, long ago!). Thus, when I read my early writings today, I wince. In fact even when I read my manuscript DOF I often wince! I surely can do better. I will do better.
I found the best hint on how to write in one of Gurcharan Das's books in which he wrote about Strunk and White's Elements of Style. That was just a few years ago, and since then I've determined to improve my writing. I haven't yet come even close to my goal, particularly because I write just too much and never have time to revise. But one day I will surely write better.
The point is this: that writing is an ESSENTIAL skill that everyone on FTI must develop. Mastery over the written word is the first step towards mastery over the spoken word.
I know a number of people on FTI with outstanding technical skills (e.g. degrees from IITs/ IIMs, international universities). But some of them may need to upgrade their writing skills if they are to have any serious chance of changing India. To them I'd suggest this: read Strunk and White. And practice writing. Start a blog and try it out. Then write for the newspapers. Write as much as you possibly can.
Also I suggest mastery over at least one Indian language. The best way for that would be to read the most elegant writers in that language. And write blog posts. And in the media.
Leadership is not born. It is developed. Through persistence. Keep doing it!
While returning from a trip to the Melbourne Gurudwara yesterday (at the invitation of a friend) I stopped by at a second hand book shop and bought a copy of Pfeffer and Sutton's excellent (2006) book, Hard Facts. Some of it is available on google books to read (although there is a limit on the number of pages you can so read).
Two things I really liked about the book. It complements Jim Collins's Good to Great (one of my favourite management books) and it acts as a bridge between the science of liberty (classical liberalism) and management.
It complements Jim Colllins's book because it highlights the fact that (a) individuals matter, and so one must aim to hire or work with good people. But in addition to this, (b) it makes abundantly clear that individuals can only do so much on their own. When it comes to large projects and major organisational efforts, it is the SYSTEM that matters most.
Those who have read BFN will note this theme repeating itself in my book, where I show that India has failed NOT because its people are in any way less intelligent or less talented than anyone else, but because its systems discourage good performance and reward populism, incompetence and corruption.
The second point I make about this book is about its acting as a bridge between the science of liberty (classical liberalism) and management. How so?
Because this book emphasises the need for WISDOM which is the common theme of classical liberalism – that we don't know much about anything, and must remain constantly open to new learning. A classical liberal is humble about his deep ignorance but he is always KEEN TO LEARN. This theme underpins BFN but is more directly found in Hayek's writings. It is crucial for us to seek evidence, to keep asking questions even about things we may otherwise take for granted. Acceptance of ignorance is good. It keeps the eyes open.
The result of these two themes is this: that when you have finally built a great organisation/team (by having the BEST people and BEST system), then the team members do the work naturally, without any additional 'motivation'. Leaders of the organisation/nation merge seamlessly with the team/citizens. There is no longer any question about succession planning since the system automatically generates great leaders – there is no shortage of successors. Every team member is a great leader.
The best way to illustrate this is through a few key paragraphs from the book:
Changing CEOs at Toyota is like changing lightbulbs: all are equally good
Toyota … consistently achiev[es] lower cost and higher quality than other companies. Toyota's success stems from its great system, not stunning individual talent. This starts at the top of the organization. One study showed that Toyota was the only major automobile company where a change in CEO had no effect on performance.39 The system is so robust that changing CEOs at Toyota is a lot like changing lightbulbs; there is little noticeable effect between the old one and the new one.
Or consider the NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing) plant in Fremont, California, a Toyota–General Motors joint venture. When GM closed its Fremont plant in 1982, it was one of the worst plants in the country, producing cars with more defects and at a higher cost than nearly any other U.S. plant. Daily absenteeism was nearly 20 percent. Wildcat strikes and drug and alcohol abuse were rampant. Following an agreement between GM and Toyota, the plant was reopened by Toyota in 1985; 85 percent of the initial workforce was rehired from a pool of employees who worked at the old, awful plant, and who still belonged to the United Auto Workers union. Before the plant was reopened, workers were given extensive training in the Toyota Production System. Over 400 trainers were sent to NUMMI from Japan and over 600 workers were sent to Japan for training. The year the plant reopened, the 6,500 Novas it produced were among the lowest cost and highest quality cars made in the United States. Absenteeism was less than 3 percent. Toyota took a bunch of F players, retrained them, put them into a great system, and magically they became superstars. A better place made them much better people.
I know that Toyota has dropped the ball a couple of years ago, leading to disastrous shrinkage in its sales, but it seems to have recovered now, and it still shows all signs of a learning organisation.
The law of Crappy Systems
"Bad systems do far more damage than bad people.
A bad system can make a genius look like an idiot."
BFN explains India's crappy systems. The same Indians do wonderfully well in the West but pathetically in India. Why so? Because systems can convert geniuses into idiots (and vice versa).
This is something that neither Hazare (a policy innocent and simpleton) nor Kejriwal (who should know better given his intelligence) seem to understand. In their minds, India's problem is Crappy People. They therefore believe that Lokpal (which is supposed to identify Crappy People) will fix India's problems. But they are TOTALLY WRONG. The problem in India is Crappy Systems, not Crappy People. Lokpal will not even remotely fix the systems. Hence it is DESTINED TO FAIL MISERABLY.
The attitude of wisdom
Wisdom means “knowing what you know and knowing what you don’t know.”Behaving with an attitude of wisdom means that you act on your present knowledge while doubting what you know. It means that you do things now, as you keep learning along the way. It means that you compensate for your limited knowledge by building on old ideas and joining communities of smart people rather than relying only on your own insights.Unacknowledged ignorance and arrogance stems from an absence of wisdom.
Here's some more:
Articles by Pfeffer for download
Pfeffer has a personal website and blog (I've now subscribed to it) here. Two articles I've downloaded include:
- The Knowing Doing Gap
- Human Resources from an Organizational Behavior Perspective: Some Paradoxes Explained (published in a top economics journal: Journal of Economic Perspectives)
Hack management
I've joined this Pfeffer project. You might want to try it out too.
An open innovation projectThe Management Innovation eXchange (MIX) is an open innovation project aimed at reinventing management for the 21st century. The premise: while "modern" management is one of humankind's most important inventions, it is now a mature technology that must be reinvented for a new age.
Pfeffer on Youtube
Pfeffer is extensively found on Youtube. I'll just link three, below:
This young man on Facebook has spoken like a true leader (I've increased the font size while copying from FB).
I trust Mithun is putting in the effort to study the problem and move into serious reform. That is only possible through politics. But only systematic and strategic politics will get us there. Not half-baked isolated attempts. - and for such systematic effort FTI has been created – for leaders to assemble. Without leaders of high calibre no reform can be expected.
I invite all young men (and I mean women too!) of India to start thinking like Mithun. You have it in you. Just tap into your own capacities.
[Addendum: Mithun has promptly clarified "by the way I have taken this lines from Decentralized, Non-Violent Resistance group.. They too have some unique ideas about reform on lines of satyagrah. http://www.dnvrm.com/home.html". That, however, in my view, doesn't detract from the thrust of this post. See his comments below. I look forward to great contributions from Mithun.]
Also:
Hey guys.. good question..will change be voluntary or involuntary is the first thing to ponder.. There are many economic, political and social system flaws that in effect compel business to negatively
impact society and the environment. We have a problem which we are facing everyday and getting frustrated. Lets look at our basic lives. What are we doing? We comply to certain things like negotiating on fair wages, over working, following what the media says without questioning or reasoning, not pondering enough to understand the mechanism of politics and socio-economic system. Without proper understanding and leaping in to change things.. will mostly lead to failures.. Things will not change overnight.. Manmohan Singh didn't become PM on Friday and ruined everything on Friday.
Step 1 is how much dependent are we on the Government and Corporate system. Your salary doesn't increase overnight as soon as fuel prices go up but cost of food goes up.. So lets minimize this dependency by imparting ourselves with entrepreneurship skills.. so that we are capable of understanding market situations and adapt.
Step 2. Have local community set up.. Ask your friends family etc to have community clubs.. Harass your local municipal and representatives with the issues ur facing..
Step 3. Be ready to risk and force changes if it comes to a point where it hurts.. Showing up at work with black badges over all the country and ensuring bare bone essential services.. shakes the economy.. I am sounding communist here but I believe civil disobedience as a major weapon with the people..
Step 4.. I do it all the time.. I show my unhappiness to all the major politicians and corporate chieftains what we are unhappy with.. on their official twitter and facebook pages.. Few things to start with.. Liberty is in our hands.. As Lokmanya Tilak said "Freedom is my birthright" I believe I have to safe guard it against all explicit and implicit suppression in any form..
Addendum:
All this – the development and growth of new leadership – is all the more critical given the total vacuum of leadership in India today.
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