A good leader?

The problem with all advisers is that they very seldom tell me what I want to hear. Why is it that, whenever it comes to the sort of person I want to be in Society, it always gets bundled in with the qualities that I do not possess? And, what is more, these advisers very seldom offer me work-arounds. All that they can say is 'Tch, Tch! If you do not have them, why do you even dream of succeeding?' Which, you will agree, is not precisely a paean of praise.

So what else can I expect of Tiru? But this...

Anjaamai eegai arivu ookkam innaangum enjaamai vendarku iyalbu - Tirukkural

Courage, compassion, wisdom and the motivation to persevere are the four qualities of a leader - Loose Translation

Tiru, of course, talks of kings in this context but, then, a king IS a stand-in for anyone in a leadership position. After all, Tiru knew not of CXOs in his time. And look at what he expects of a leader. I mean, ONE virtue is difficult enough to have, and he expects not one but four virtues in a leader. Talk about expecting the impossible.

Now, courage I can understand. Not necessarily, I suppose, the sort of courage that are so lauded in films...the taking on of a hundred machete-wielding goons and coming out victorious. But if you are not merely the sort of leader who judges which way the crowd is going and runs ahead of the mob...where was I? Ah, if you are not that sort of leader but one who decides himself about the direction he wants to take his people in, THEN you need to have the courage of your convictions; to take decisions under uncertainty despite the risk of being proved wrong. Now THAT I suppose one has to admit as necessary even though one does not possess it.

Compassion (literally, eegai is being charitable. I use compassion here as the generic character trait which leads to charity)? Now THAT is something that the corporate world will find difficult to understand as a necessity. After all, the history of the corporate world as it is today starts off with robber barons and exploitative leaders who sent in young children into mines for the most part of the day. Perhaps, by around now, the corporate world has come to recognize that a semblance of compassion is necessary but...actually being compassionate? THAT's possibly a hard-sell but I will say this - when the corporate culture is known to be compassionate, it earns loyalty. Now whether loyalty, employee loyalty in particular, is a sought-after thing in these gig-economy days is something that you have to decide for yourself. Maybe in this Tiru is dated since in his days life-time employment in the same place was probably THE rule.

Wisdom is another of those things that people may well think is a dated idea. I mean, come on, even in the old days one could lean on consultants; NOW you can always google.

In this context, I must tell the tale of a open-book design examination in chemical engineering. You walk in to the exam hall, get a question on designing a reactor but, where you were expecting to be given the volume of the reactor that piece of datum is conspicuous by its absence. Instead, you have all sorts of esoteric data AND a huge 1200 page Chemical Engineer's Handbook which obviously has all the necessary information if only you knew where to look for it. Once you identify that the esoteric data given can be used to CALCULATE the volume of the reactor and that formula is likely there in the reaction kinetics portion of the Handbook...well, the rest is a breeze.

What was that story for, you ask? The point IS that wisdom may not lie in KNOWING all the formulae but in knowing that such a formula exists at all and where to look for it. In other words, to know where to look for a solution IS wisdom in and of itself. Whether it is in a book or in the right adviser is immaterial. Which is why they say that to know that you do not know IS the beginning of wisdom because THAT is when you know to look for it.

AND then that ookkam thingy. I have translated as 'motivation to persevere'; it could well be translated as 'enthusiasm'. The point is that Tiru does mean that you need to have the energy and the enthusiasm to stick to your task and not give way at the first difficulty. Leaders carry along people to the completion of the goals that they set, keep encouraging them when their spirits flag and carry through to completion. Enthusiasm, these days, seems to be a thing of the moment in most people's minds as in it is all too easy for them to say, "I have lost enthu," and drop a project. Which is why I preferred that 'motivation to persevere' as the closer phrase to Tiru's meaning.

But, yeah, it is nice and easy to list, elaborate and even nitpick on all these qualities that Tiru prescribes. I look into the mirror and it looks back at me incredulously. Nope, not ONE!