A modern leader today in the dynamic, ever-changing and ever evolving scenario needs to be multi-skilled and multi-tasked. The need of the hour is to not only embrace change but to adapt, innovate and execute one’s ideas and vision. Democracy today is not limited to speeches and mere rhetoric, a leader needs to have an in depth understanding of every stakeholder and their aspirations, encompassing vision and a belief in what he is doing. Leaders, be it in corporate or government need to be smarter and more knowledgeable than ever before.
A transformative leader has the capabilities to Listen, Learn, Leverage and Lead. More than listening, he involves and engages critical stakeholders, setting a two way learning process. As Benjamin Franklin has said:
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, Involve me and I learn”
An exemplary performer that immediately comes to mind who believes in building bridges through conversations is Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is a leader who believes that every citizen is a critical stakeholder in scripting the development narrative of our nation. And he not only believes but acts to fulfill what he believes in. His actions are a consequence of his vision and dream he has for India. We all notice and enjoy his public speeches, but how many of us have ever observed the long hours he puts in listening and learning? Whether it is his MyGov initiative or Mann ki Baat, he is persistent to take suggestions and ideas of people of India, inviting them to a journey of building a future they would like.
PM Modi absorbs the echoes, sentiments and perceptions of diverse India and its people. The fact that PM ably tailors his message innovatively to the target audience is no secret. But the point to note is how well he notices the habits, styles and lingo used by various age groups and classes of society.
A lot of people who meet Narendra Modi are often happily surprised by his attention span and his ability to listen. For people like us, any commitment of more than one hour becomes difficult to adjust in our busy schedules. But it was heartening to see that perhaps the busiest man in India took out 2-3 hours twice in a week to listen and talk to entrepreneurs. While such meetings boost the morale of our entrepreneurs, it provides the country’s CEO actionable insights no survey or report can!
This is neither the first nor the last instance of such meetings. Prime Minister Modi has held detailed meetings with diverse range of people to go down to the root of issues and resolve them. While PM Modi keeps meeting MPs during parliament session and various other occasions, he took a special initiative. He invites BJP MPs (282 of them) from throughout the country in state-wise batches to his residence and listens to their ideas, issues and suggestions. He has already completed 2 such cycles. This reflects in his insight and understanding of grass-root problems. That also sets apart the Modi Government in the way it has adopted ground level solutions and truly addressed tricky long pending flaws.
Similarly, he is leveraging the knowledge and expertise of officers in a commendable way. Some months back, he sat with senior officers of the Government of India to draw a roadmap for the future. Officers were divided into groups and they presented their solutions one by one, while the PM patiently listened and imbibed every word. Every issue, theme, Idea identified by the Prime Minister is related to a big vision and dream of building a New India.
Recently, Prime Minister Modi has started meeting senior officers from Centre & States. There will be multiple meetings, where PM Modi will meet, listen and interact with a total of 900 officers! Such an interaction not only has few parallels in history, but also sets new standards of interaction and learning.
Be it a student or a scientist, be it an athlete or an academic, the Prime Minister is always all ears when someone is speaking. In the PM’s routine, no idea goes unacknowledged, no insight goes unattended & no problem goes unaddressed. The PM’s mantra is simple: Listen to Learn and Learn to Leverage!
@latishachary What makes you think so? Constructive criticism is the cornerstone of a democracy & it must be encouraged. Express freely.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 30, 2015
So, while we marvel at the thought of what cloud computing can bring in the future, there is one human in the present, who is absorbing and processing information just like a cloud. It is just odd that these patterns haven’t been observed before. In this process, he is working more than all of us, listening more than all of us and thinking more than all of us. Irrespective of whether one agrees with his politics or not, these are qualities which all of us should aspire to acquire.
The PM is himself a case study for political and business leaders across the world in how to leverage information from thousands of individuals for a mission. He is the one who never becomes complacent. He competes with himself, set deadlines and targets, works in a mission mode, nothing less than a CEO.